Picasso needed redemption, too

Picasso was a "control freak", and he loved the benefits of fame and wealth. He was a free spirit in his art and morality. However, his manner of behaving had its consequences in his personal life. As with his mistresses and the children from them, there was much tragedy and heartbreak among his wives and children, extending down to his grandchildren.

This element of the artist's life comes out in a discussion the BBC's Zeinab Badawi had with the artist's friend and biographer John Richardson, and grandson Bernard Ruiz Picasso. Richardson says Picasso was wonderful to his friends but very controlling within the family. "He liked his women to be submissive, and when he had finished with them he took it out on their children," a BBC trailer on the discussion reports.

It goes on: "Bernard tells Zeinab that although he was fond of his grandfather, he realises that Picasso sometimes had strange reactions to members of his family." The contradictions in the great artist's life come out also in the series uploaded on YouTube.

A free spirit, yes, but as a flawed man, a slave to his own whims and drives.