The Uninvited Guest (1966–1984)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1966 to 1984. By the mid-1960s, Roland used his Sussex home as a refuge from his lecture tours, meetings at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and other London-based activities. As a result, he paid more attention to the garden and filled it with sculptures. Although he kept in touch with the ICA, Roland had lost touch with its day-to-day activities during his Picasso years. He had expected Herbert Read to carry on in his place, but when Read died in 1968 Roland felt duty-bound to rekindle his formerly close relationship with the Institute. Finding new quarters for the ICA — and raising funds to accomplish this — became Roland's preoccupation. In 1973, Picasso died on 8 April, in his ninety-first year. In 1977, when he served on the committee selecting the Picasso works that would constitute the dation en paiement (death duties) payable to the French government, Roland felt he was burgling an old friend's house.

Life with a Virtuoso (1954–1966)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1954 to 1966. In 1953, Victor Gollancz invited Roland to research and write a life of Picasso. Modestly but accurately, Roland realised that he might indeed be able to write a good biography. That winter, Roland visited Picasso in Perpignan, where Picasso was staying with the Comte and Comtesse de Lazerne at their country mansion. Roland broached the question of a biography with Picasso: ‘I told him that I wanted to write a book about him. His reaction was more encouraging than I had dared to hope.’ Putting aside the important claims surrealism had made upon him personally, Roland attempted to come to a full understanding of all aspects of Picasso's career, especially his cubist and neoclassical periods. The resulting book, narrated from what Roland felt was Picasso's point of view, shows a remarkable understanding of a genius at work.

Re-defining Modernism (1946–1953)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1946 to 1953. Before the war, there had been a great deal of discussion about the establishment of a museum of modern art in London. Herbert Read had attempted to start one in co-operation with Peggy Guggenheim. Roland and Mesens had made counter-moves. However, nothing had happened, largely because of the approaching war. By 22 January 1946, the differences between Read and Mesens had been sufficiently mended for them — together with Roland — to send a letter inviting ‘interested parties’ to attend a meeting on the creation in London of a centre from which a Museum of Modern Art could ultimately be planned.

Post-War Blues (1945–1947)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1945 to 1947. Lee and Roland flew to New York City on 19 May 1946. Roland was elated to have the opportunity to rekindle his relationship with the Museum of Modern Art's (MOMA) director Alfred H. Barr, Jr., who likely warned him about the dangers he would face if he backed any kind of proposal to open a museum of modern art in London. Roland was taken with MOMA's collection: ‘Realizing that it was on a far greater scale that anything that could be dreamt of in London, consistently indifferent to all matters concerning the visual arts and still enfeebled by the war, this achievement nevertheless roused in me a longing to attempt some similar kind of folly at home’. Barr would also have expressed his gratitude to Roland for allowing his Picassos to be sent to MOMA during the war.

Born Again (1922–1931)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1922 to 1931. Roland travelled to Paris in 1922. He visited museums, art galleries, the flea market in Saint-Eustache and the Jardin des Plantes by day; by night he was awestruck by the glamour of Pigalle and Montparnasse. He attended at the studio of André Lhote, whose work had become cubist after a stint as a Fauve. Lhote, a native of Bordeaux, learned wood-carving and sculpture from the age of 12, when his father apprenticed him to a local furniture maker to be trained as a sculptor in wood. Through Lhote, Roland became aware of the monumental contributions made by cubism's inventors: Gris, Braque, and especially Picasso. He would marry the mysterious, illusive Valentine Boué on 21 December 1925.

Grim Glory (1939–1945)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1939 to 1945. On 1 September 1939, the day Hitler invaded Poland, Roland and Lee drove north to Saint-Malo, where the next day they caught the boat to England. They arrived at Waterloo station on 3 September to hear the first air-raid sirens and see silver-gray barrage balloons in the sky; England had declared war on Germany. The Hitler War put Roland into a deep-seated conflict. For almost a decade he had been actively engaged in combating Nazism in a variety of activities. He may have no longer considered himself a practising Quaker in the fullest meaning of that word, but he had been born such, and he could not simply shrug off that inheritance. The Air Raid Protection Corps provided his first involvement with the war effort.

On the Brink of War (1937–1939)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1937 to 1939. The year 1937 was a joyous one for Roland. In addition to meeting Lee he had exhibited in the Surrealist Objects and Poems show at the London Gallery, and at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He had made his first postcard collages, and also created a number of sculptures. Then a new opportunity presented itself. The London Gallery had been founded in 1936 by Lady Noel (known as Peter) Norton, the wife of a diplomat. When her husband was posted to Poland, Lady Norton withdrew her financial support, and the gallery was in danger of closing. In 1938, Roland and E. L. T. Mesens entered into a partnership. Roland would provide most of the funding for the London Gallery in Cork Street as a showcase for contemporary, especially surrealist, art, and Mesens would manage it.

Aphrodite in Blue (1936–1938)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1936 to 1938. In late 1936, Roland and Valentine went their separate ways. After Valentine left for India, Roland had brief affairs, but he was certainly not prepared to encounter a goddess who would sweep him off his feet. On 21 June 1937, Roland was invited to a surrealist fancy dress party at the home of the Rochas family in Paris. In order to be as surrealist as possible, Roland had dyed his right hand and left foot blue, wore paint-encrusted trousers and a filthy old coat. Costumed in this scruffy way, he met American photographer Lee Miller. From the outset of their affair, Roland and Lee agreed that neither would prevent the other from having sexual relationships with others. For them, true freedom meant a lack of possessiveness. True love obviously transcended sex. Back in London, Roland would continue to have liaisons with a number of women; back in Egypt Lee would see other men. The couple recounted their adventures to each other.

A Pastoral Retreat (1949–1953)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1949 to 1953. By 1949, Roland felt the ‘urge to live closer to nature’. After the war, London seemed a place of muted glory. The sad state of the metropolis reminded him that his native land had moved down several notches in the world's estimation. Harry Yoxall, the founder of English Vogue, alerted the Penroses to the availability by auction of a small dairy farm and accompanying house in the Downs. They acquired 200 acres, the house, cottages, and farm buildings for twenty-nine cows for £22,500. Roland was delighted to be able to divide his life between the city and the country. Lee, a more urban person, had grave doubts.

The Modern Colossus (1936–1938)

This chapter details events in Roland Penrose's life from 1936 to 1938. In July 1936, Paul Éluard pressed Roland and Valentine to join him at Mougins on the Riviera. Many other surrealists would be there, he promised, including Picasso. Roland accepted the invitation, and he and Valentine motored south at the beginning of August. Picasso was fifty-four — nineteen years older than Roland — when they met. He was already considered one of the greatest artists of the century, having produced central modernist works during his Blue Period (1901–4), Rose Period (1905–7), an African-inspired Period (1908–9), Analytic Cubist Period (1909–12), Synthetic Cubist Period 1912–19) and Classical Period (1919–30). Whether or not Picasso could be labelled a surrealist, Roland admired no other artist — living or dead — more than the Spaniard.