Pablo Picasso with his children Paloma and Claude at the ceramics exhibition in Vallauris, France, where Edward Quinn first met and photographed the artist, in 1951.

Jean Cocteau and Picasso dressed up as toreadors ahead of a bullfight in Vallauris, 1955.

Françoise Gilot, who shared children Claude and Paloma with Picasso, ahead of opening the Corrida of Vallauris, 1954.

Paloma, Maya Picasso (daughter of Marie-Thérèse Walter), and Claude watch a bullfight with their father, 1955.

Maya photographs Cocteau; his adopted son, Édouard Dermit; and Picasso with her father’s Minox camera, 1955.

Jacqueline Roque and Picasso at La Californie, his villa in Cannes, 1958. The pair would marry in 1961.

Roque and Picasso at the telephone, 1956. Her dress was printed with motifs of a Picasso work.

Paloma, Jacqueline, Pablo, and Claude look through photos taken by Quinn on a visit to La Californie, 1960.

Picasso with Catherine Hutin, his stepdaughter by Roque, passing by a circus promoter in St. Tropez, 1961.

Picasso Unseen

Rare, intimate pictures taken by the Irish photographer Edward Quinn over the course of his 19-year friendship with Picasso capture the artist in his downtime

In 1951, the Irish photographer Edward Quinn was living in Monaco with his future wife, Margaret, taking advantage of the splendid subjects on offer on the Côte d’Azur. For Life and Paris Match, he snapped impromptu shots of Grace Kelly, Aristotle Onassis, and Brigitte Bardot. The first time Quinn met Pablo Picasso, however, he left nothing to chance.

In July of that year, on a mission, Quinn traveled to a ceramics exhibition in Vallauris, France. “I was not the only one who wanted to see Picasso that day,” he said later, recalling how he pushed his way through a sea of cameras. Picasso posed with Prince Ali Khan, anticipating that a short photo op would be enough to appease the photographers. He was almost right. The crowd dispersed, but Quinn stayed. “It paid off,” he said, which was an understatement.