13. Picasso Betrayed a Critically Ill Mistress
After Picasso left Fernande Olivier due to her illness, he began seeing a friend of hers, Eve Gouel. Gouel was also known as Marcelle Humbert. After the two started a relationship, they left Paris to avoid running in the same artistic circle as Olivier. Gouel is the least known of all Picasso’s numerous lovers. Little is known about her personality, history or relationship with Picasso. He never painted her, unlike his other partners, and she appears only in a couple of photographs.
Gouel had some talent as a businesswoman and helped market and sell Picasso’s works. However, she was always quite frail and sickly. It is believed now that she was either suffering from tuberculosis or some form of cancer, as she had a wasting illness. In 1915, her illness reached the point where she needed to be hospitalized. However, instead of supporting his seriously ill paramour, Picasso took another lover.
While Goule was still in the hospital, Picasso began an affair with his neighbor, Gaby Lespinasse. Picasso’s concern throughout the period of Eve’s illness was chiefly himself, with him describing his life with Gouel as “hell” in a letter to a friend and patron. Eve died from her disease in Paris on December 14th, 1915.