A Villa in Cannes and a Final Muse: Jacqueline Roque

*L'Atelier de la Californie* picks up the story after Françoise. She left Picasso in 1953, and the following year, in 1954, he met Jacqueline Roque, his last love and the woman often called his second wife. Jacqueline was the niece of the manager of a pottery workshop that Picasso visited often when he was deep into ceramics, and she worked there herself. She had married young, divorced, and was living alone. As they worked together on ceramics, they met more and more often and fell for each other. Jacqueline Roque was Picasso's final muse.

In 1955 the couple settled in Cannes, in the south of France, and lived together in a villa called La Californie. Yes, that Cannes, home of the film festival, and fittingly Picasso took part in a film too: *The Mystery of Picasso*, made with colleagues. He bought the villa in 1955 and lived there with Jacqueline until 1961. *L'Atelier de la Californie* was painted there in 1956.

In 1961, when Picasso was 80, the two married. Olga, his first wife, had died, so only then could he marry again legally. The wedding was kept secret and held very quietly, yet it made the front pages that day. After the wedding they moved to another town in the south, Mougins, where Picasso would later die. Jacqueline Roque remained his last love and second wife, and when he became ill and irritable in his final years, she stayed devotedly by his side and cared for him.