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Anne Girard's Madame Picasso (September) is the mesmerizing and untold story of Eva Gouel, the unforgettable woman who stole the heart of the greatest artist of our time. When Eva Gouel moves to Paris from the countryside, she is full of ambition and dreams of stardom. Though young and inexperienced, she manages to find work as a costumer at the famous Moulin Rouge, and it is here that she first catches the attention of Pablo Picasso, a rising star in the art world. With sparkling insight and passion, Madame Picasso introduces us to a dazzling heroine, taking us from the salon of Gertrude Stein to the glamorous Moulin Rouge and inside the studio and heart of one of the most enigmatic and iconic artists of the 20th century.
Why do you write?
I write because there are stories that come into my mind, and then proceed to wrap themselves tightly around my heart, and they don't let go until I tell them. When that happens, I consider it a duty to share the lives of these wonderful people with dignity and accuracy, and of course with a little dash of spice tossed in for good measure! Being in any part of that creative process is incredibly fulfilling to me. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.
What was the first thing you wrote?
The first thing I wrote was a love story I had written longhand when I was 16 about an injured Vietnam vet returning to his life and love in small town America. It wasn't very good, but it was my first attempt at fully fleshing out a novel, and I loved learning the process through that experience. For most of us, I think it starts really early like that.
What inspired your latest book?
What inspired Madame Picasso was a photograph of Eva Gouel taken by Pablo Picasso. In it, she has a striking look of innocence, and yet also this great steel core came through her gaze, and I thought when I first saw it what an amazing young woman she must have been to have captured the heart of a passionate artist so thoroughly as she did. I was absolutely struck. Reading Eva's letters back and forth with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas confirmed for me that Eva was an extraordinary woman, caring and funny, largely forgotten by history, and who, because of her imprint on the heart of a legend, deserved to be known. I hope I did her story justice in Madame Picasso.
author photo: Alexander C. Haeger