The news of the death of Maya Ruitt-Picasso, who died quietly at the age of 87, her family said, comes shortly before the beginning of the year in which Europe will celebrate half a century since the death of her famous father. Her full name was Maria de la Concepción Widmeyer-Picasso, but her nickname was Maya. Born in 1935 in France, she was the artist’s eldest daughter from his marriage to Marie-Thérèse Walter, a model and one of his muses. She had an older half-brother, Paulo, from her father’s marriage to the ballerina Olga Koklova, and two younger half-siblings, Claude and Paloma, from Picasso’s relationship with the artist Françoise Gilot. She devoted part of her life to the study and preservation of her father’s heritage.

In 2017, the Gagosian Gallery opened the exhibition “Picasso and Maya: Father and Daughter” in Paris, which was the first showcase of Picasso’s Maya-inspired work. Until the end of the month, the Picasso Museum presents an exhibition entitled “Maya Ruiz-Picasso: Pablo’s Daughter” dedicated to her. The exhibition explores the relationship between father and daughter through Picasso’s series of portraits of her, as well as sculptures, photographs, objects and archival material.