Claude Ruiz Picasso, the younger son of the renowned Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, died on Thursday in Switzerland. He was 76 years old. Claude’s lawyer broke the news but did not reveal the cause of his death. While Picasso, who died in 1973, was one of the twentieth century’s most important artists, little is known about his son. Let’s take a closer look at who he was. Picasso fathered four children. Claude was his kid with Françoise Gilot, a French artist who died in June last year at the age of 101.
Who was Claude Ruiz Picasso?
Claude was named after the pioneering French Rococo artist Claude Gillot by his mother. He has a younger sister, Paloma Picasso, who is well-known for her Tiffany & Co. jewelry designs and perfumes. He was a French photographer, filmmaker, visual artist, graphic designer, and entrepreneur. He worked as a photojournalist for magazines such as Vogue, Time, and Sunday Review. Claude won France’s highest accolade, the Legion d’honneur, in 2011 for his work as an artist and as the court-appointed administrator of his father’s estate.
He also set up the “Picasso Administration” to deal with the myriad copyright, reproduction, and trademark issues. Gilot was reputedly the first woman to leave Picasso, and when she wrote a biography about their life together, Picasso sought to prevent it from being published. As a result, he severed ties with Claude and Paloma. In 1970, Claude sued Picasso in France to be acknowledged as his legitimate son. He was victorious, and he and Paloma became Picasso’s legal heirs.
Claude once stated of Picasso’s creations, “We’d have to rent the Empire State Building to house all the works.” Picasso’s inheritance, which belonged to one of the world’s wealthiest families, was worth £650 million at the time. He is said to have left almost 45,000 works, including 1,885 paintings, 1,228 sculptures, 7,089 sketches, 30,000 prints, 150 sketchbooks, and 3,222 ceramic pieces.