Pablo Picasso's Framework

Currey's Picasso is the young painter of the Bateau-Lavoir years with Fernande Olivier, and the pattern held for life: he went to bed late and got up late. He shut himself in the studio from two in the afternoon until at least dusk, then emerged for dinner, often saying nothing at the table. While he worked, he said, he left his body outside the door, as Muslims leave their shoes before the mosque. Socialising was the exhausting part, so he and Fernande made Sunday an at-home day to dispose of the obligations of friendship in a single afternoon. The chart, drawing on later accounts from Françoise Gilot's years, extends the day: up around eleven, lunch and friends until three, painting until 10:30, a late dinner, then painting again until 2:30 in the morning. Only the two o'clock start and the work until dusk are Currey's; the rest is the chart's estimate. As a week it is an eight-and-a-half-hour late night and ten and a half hours of creative work, and nothing in the mornings at all.