A listener note, this episode contains references to child sexual abuse.

Welcome to the second episode of our series about Pablo Picasso, the greatest artist of the 20th century,

but a man whose legacy has been tarnished by revelations about his

personal life and character. When we left you at the end of episode one, Picasso had been through

his blue period, sparked by the suicide of his best friend Carlos Casagémas, and returned to Paris

to set up in a studio in the squalid surroundings of Le Batot Lavoire,

a former piano factory he shares with a group of other bohemian artists.

Fame and fortune have yet to come his way, but he has met a muse,

and the first real love of his life, Fernand Olivier,

a painter and model who arrives at the Baton-Lavoie

seeking shelter from a storm. Fernand already has a past, born out of wedlock as

Amelie Long, she has a difficult childhood and runs away from home and marries while still a teenager.

But her husband is so abusive, she leaves him without a divorce and changes her name so he can't find her.

The relationship with Picasso is also a tempestuous one, with both said to be jealous and possessive lovers.

November 1905, Baton-L la Voire Montmartre.

Fernand Olivier sits up on a thin, stained mattress

as her long, red hair falls onto her shoulders.

In the small, cramped studio, a dying fire flickers in the corner.

With the last of the coal gone, the room is freezing.

She covers herself with a woolen blanket.

She feels Pablo's hand on the small of her back before he kisses her tenderly on the neck.

He pulls her in close, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

...