Pablo Picasso was the son of José Ruiz Blasco, a professor of drawing, and Maria Picasso López. His father recognized the boy’s talent at a young age and encouraged him to pursue art. Picasso’s adult relationships were complicated, however, and during his life he had two wives, many mistresses, four children, and eight grandchildren. Following a string of romantic relationships, Picasso married the dancer Olga Khokhlova in 1918, and they had a son, Paulo, in 1921. Picasso was not faithful, however, and he and Olga were separated in 1935, though they never divorced, due to legal issues. He continued his extramarital affairs while maintaining several long-term relationships, including ones with the young Marie-Thérèse Walter, who bore him a daughter named Maya in 1935; the photographer Dora Maar; the painter Françoise Gilot, with whom he had two children, Claude (1947) and Paloma (1949); and Jacqueline Roque, who became his second wife in 1961, years after Olga’s death in 1955.
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