‘At the end of the Second World War, Picasso had the chance to live in the Grimaldi Castle in Antibes, which had been a museum before the war but had to be closed down during the conflict. For Picasso this was a short but happy painting season, a real immersion into the Mediterranean of the ancient Sophia Antipolis, the Greek city on which now lies the medieval town of Antibes. Picasso used to divide his time between work, a new love and the world of fishermen. Although he did not have any canvases to paint on, Picasso once again showed his ability in adapting to new materials, which proved very useful and capable of preserving the paint. He even worked on cement and ships’ timbers. He also used old canvases, or better, paintings which were part of the collection in the castle. Besides important still lives, nudes and paintings of fishermen, the artist painted one of his great masterpieces: “The joy of living”, a classical Antipolis revived with fauns and centaurs. It is a huge work in cement which kept Picasso busy for a long time, through many retouches. “The joy of living” was made through many preparatory sketches and paintings. Nowadays castle Grimaldi has become Museum Picasso and it holds, as well as “The joy of living”, all the studies that came before it and all the photographs which show the artist in action. It is therefore possible to follow the genesis, the biography of a work dedicated to the re-start of life and to the end of the war. The director of the Museum Picasso, Danielle Giraudy, has prepa-red for the Mee-ting a very interesting exhibition that guides us through Picasso’s creative itinerary. We therefore see the developing of what we can define as “the initiative” of the artist and the birth of a work dedicated to life.’