The Art Newspaper

We were pleased to be approached by The Art Newspaper who were interesting in covering the Collection as an article in their publication. It was published in September 2008, on page 9, titled “Picasso in three Dimensions”.

Picasso is no longer with us, but a cache of stereoscopic photographs of him has emerged that allow one to see the old superstar in startling 3-D. The photographer was a French inventor and educator called Robert Mouzillat, who had created his own method for stereoscopic colour photos. He took thousands of pictures of nature, surgical operations, the golfer Arnold Palmer and even a few of the pope in a red sports car. In 1957, he was invited down to Picasso’s house in the south of France, La Californie, where he took dozens of photos of the artist in his studio, with his family and then mistress, Jacqueline Roque, with friends, including the dealer Louise Leiris, the art critic and collector Douglas Cooper, and the goat. There are also numerous pictures of Picasso and friends at a bullfight in Arles. Here we have (left) horseplay between Picasso with a friend (Oscar Dominguez), with, in the middle, John Richardson, subsequently to become his biographer, and (right) Picasso in his studio with his sculpture of a fawn on his shoulder. These photos now belong to Mouzillat’s daughter, Elizabeth Mouzillat Jowett, who is based in the UK and is now considering the most suitable place for them to end up. A.S.C.