Maya Ruiz-Picasso, eldest daughter of the Spanish master and subject of several of his paintings, died Tuesday at the age of 87, lawyer Richard Malka told AFP, citing a statement from the family.
"
Maya Ruiz-Picasso died peacefully this morning surrounded by her family, at the age of 87
," the statement said, without giving further explanation.
Born on September 5, 1935, María de la Concepción, nicknamed Maya, is the first daughter of Pablo Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter, met in 1927. The arrival of this child will change the life of the artist, who died in 1973 , and had four children.
She is currently the subject of a double exhibition at the Picasso National Museum in Paris, on her relationship to her father as well as on the dation and the donations she made to the French State.
Maya with a doll
(1938),
Maya with a doll and a horse
(1938),
Maya with a sailor suit
(1938),
Maya with a boat
(1938) or
Maya with an apron
(1938) are thus some of the unstructured portraits, all in color, of the little Maya currently presented in Paris.
At the end of September 2021, she had sold eight unpublished works by the master, through a donation.
Among them,
the Child with a pacifier sitting under a chair
.
A symbolic painting since it probably represents Maya as a child, hidden under the furniture, as a dark omen of the world conflict to come, explained Olivier Widmaier Picasso, grandson of Picasso, present at the press conference alongside his sister Diana at the time of donation.
Maya Ruiz-Picasso was the mother of three children.
France and Spain will celebrate in 2023 the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso through several exhibitions on both sides of the Pyrenees.