“Paul Éluard loved Picasso and was loved by him, probably like nobody else: there was a uniquely unsuspecting tenderness between them, as between equals”, wrote Claude Roy, who knew both artists.

Éluard was Picasso’s best friend from 1935 onwards. Following the disappearance of Apollinaire, Éluard was the only poet Picasso could converse with and exchange or share ideas with. The surrealist poet soon became literally captivated by the demiurge-artist, writing “With Picasso, the walls come down”.

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