Eva Gouel’s absence from the photograph
The most probable period is therefore the first of the two mentioned above: sometime between mid-July 1915 and early 1916. Even before she was hospitalized at the beginning of November to spend her final days, Eva had been very weak, as we learn from her letters to her friend Fifine, the wife of Picasso’s friend Haviland, also a painter.[1] The five letters held at the Musée de Céret are dated between June 28 and October 25, 1915. Eva reports on her health. On July 12: “I have not been feeling very well, but I’m happy; my Pablo loves me, and tells me so.”
Eight days later, on July 20: “We often go to Montmartre to visit Braque. We saw Max (Jacob) yesterday, he came over for dinner and asked me about you; he sends you his regards.” Then she gives reassuring news about her relationship with Picasso, but not about her health: “Pablo has been spending a bit more time with me; he’s sweet and takes good care of me, because the last few days I haven't been very well. Just think of it, my dear Fifine: I lost two kilos in three months, and that’s so much!”
On July 29, Eva wishes that Fifine were in Paris, nearby, because she needs her. She gives her friend disturbing news, as the symptoms keep on getting worse: “I’m not very strong right now. I'm dizzy and weak, and I don't eat, no matter how hard I try, it just doesn’t work.” And she continues to describe Picasso's attention: "Pablo has been taking care of me again, he doesn't leave me alone often anymore. We go out together like two lovers and he takes me to dinner in a small restaurant on the Avenue d'Orléans, so that I can eat well. And we often go to see Braque in Montmartre. We also see Serge[2] every day. Other than that, we don't see anyone anymore. Max came for lunch yesterday, he is very bored at the moment because his confessor doesn't want to see him anymore.”
The last letter is dated October 25, three months after the previous one. It was undoubtedly Eva’s last, before she passed away seven weeks later, on December 14. It was addressed to Céret in the Pyrenees, where Fifine had returned, escaping the hardships of Paris. “I am so ill that I haven’t been able to write to you until now. I try a little bit every day, but I’m so weak and tremble so much that you would not have been able to read my writing. I have been feeling quite a bit worse since you left, and I miss you very much, because you know how much I love you. I often despair of my recovery. Pablo scolds me when I tell him that I don’t think I’ll make it to 1916.” Sadly and unfortunately, she was right. Eva can feel the end approaching: “I may have to go to the hospital; I don’t know yet. I don’t know what they will do with me, but what I do know is that all that is left of me is skin and bones.”
Nevertheless, we can gather from these letters that she continued to go to Montmartre with Picasso to visit their friends. Although Zinoviev’s studio was only a twenty or thirty minute walk from Rue Schœlcher, Diego was not truly a friend, and Angelina clearly did not get along with Eva. Therefore, Picasso could have gone there alone, without Eva, who was too weak or already in the hospital. According to a letter from Picasso to Gertrude Stein written on December 9,[3] she had been hospitalized for a month, since early November. Eva Gouel died on December 14, 1915.
Therefore, the photograph shows Diego Rivera and Angelina Beloff, with Picasso and the dog Sentinelle, in Alexandre Zinoviev’s studio. It was probably taken in the second half of 1915 or possibly in the first months of 1916. As far as we know, it is the only photograph in which Rivera and Picasso appear together.
[1] Joséphine Matamoros, Picasso – Dessins et papier collés – Céret 1911-1913, Céret, Musée d’Art Moderne de Céret, 1997, pp. 364-368.
[2] Serge Férat, a Russian artist who, jointly with his cousin the Baroness d’Oettingen, was very close to Picasso during Eva’s final days.
[3] Laurence Madeline, Gertrude Stein – Pablo Picasso : Correspondance, Paris, Gallimard, 2005, pp. 189-91.
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Summary