Lump: The Love of His Life

“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
                                                                                  ~ Pablo Picasso, artist

Most people recognize the name Pablo Picasso – one of the world’s most famous artists. 
Not only is his art legendary, but also his love for woman is infamous.
What you may not know, was that the love of Picasso’s life was his little dachshund named Lump (German for Rascal and pronounced loomp): a red, short-haired dachshund!

In 1957, renowned war photographer, David Douglas Duncan, took his camera and his Dachshund, Lump, to shoot his favorite new subject, Pablo Picasso.  But Duncan’s other dog, a giant Afghan hound, had never suited the jealous and temperamental Lump.  So when they arrived at Picasso’s Villa that spring day, Lump decided that he had found his paradise on earth, and that he would take up permanent residence with Picasso.

Lump was immortalized in a Picasso portrait painted on a plate the day they met, but that was just the beginning.

Picasso was inspired by what many consider the greatest painting in the Western world, Spanish court painter Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas.

Lump was celebrated in 45 paintings, in which Picasso’s reinterpreted Las Meninas ...

I love Picasso’s rendering of Lump, because it reminds me of my own Daphne!

Daphne and I at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Read more about Lump’s amazing life in David Douglas Duncan’s book Picasso & Lump: A Dachshund’s Odyssey.

My wonderful husband will appreciate today’s blog post.
He convinced me to go on our first date by telling me that Daphne and Sam should meet!
Our first date was dinner together – take out – then walking our dogs together around a lake.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Mary