My childhood friend Pablo Picasso

He gave the world great works of art - but to some he was just a playmate

By Jan Melrose
BBC Sussex

"What did Picasso taste like when you bit him?" It's not the sort of question you get asked every day - but Antony Penrose knows the answer.

To a three-year-old Antony, the Spanish artist was just a family friend who visited the Sussex farmhouse where he grew up in the 1950s.

It was during a particularly rowdy pretend bullfight that Antony "naughtily bit Picasso".

Then, much to his surprise the artist bit him back.

Gauloises cigarettes

"C'est le premier anglais que j'ai jamais mordu!" ("It is the first Englishman I have ever bitten"), shouted Picasso, as Antony's mother - the American photographer Lee Miller - scribbled it all down.

She would later write about the incident in an article for Vogue - but Antony, now 63, forgot all about it until he discovered his mother's notes and the magazine after her death.

Now Antony is writing about it too, in the form of a children's book, using drawings, paintings and his mother's photos to give a rare insight into the private life of Picasso.

Antony, Picasso and William the Ayrshire bull at home in Chiddingly

"I don't remember much about our very first meeting," says Antony.

"But I do remember he smelled good, of Gauloises cigarettes and some kind of cologne, for a little English boy those are very exciting smells.

"He just had that wonderful warmth about him, there was just something that as a child I revelled in and basked in."

Accessible

Despite speaking different languages, the pair formed a close friendship - through their shared love of cows, tractors and "found objects".

"It might have been a pretty feather, a spider's web, a funny shaped pebble - some little treasure we could find the marvellous in as we walked around the garden," said Antony.

He knew he was very rich indeed - all that did was allow him to be private and very generous Antony Penrose

"He dared to be a child. One thing he said I thought was so right is that inside every child there is an artist, the difficult part is finding the child inside the adult.

"It was something he managed to find inside himself, I think that's why it made him so accessible to a child, we would share the same wonderment."

Picasso came to Farley Farm House in Chiddingly, East Sussex, primarily to see Antony's mother Lee Miller and her husband, the British surrealist artist Roland Penrose .

The list of people who stayed with them reads like the guest list at an art lover's fantasy dinner party - Man Ray, Max Ernst and Joan Miro all enjoyed the tranquility and beauty of this unspoilt spot of Sussex countryside.

But it wasn't until he was in his teens that Antony realised his playmate was something of a celebrity.

"It was a bit of a shock, I had just known this person as being someone who was very close to my parents, but who was generous to afford me a very lovely relationship.

'Concentration camps'

"It didn't change the way I saw him, the most important reason for that was he never considered himself as a celebrity. He knew he was very rich indeed but all that did was allow him to be private and very generous, more generous than anyone ever realised at the time."

Though their friendship tailed off as both grew older, Picasso gave Antony a permanent gift through the understanding of his mother's personality that the artist captured in his work.

The children who helped illustrate the book have signed Antony's copy

Their fragile relationship has been well-documented, a result of what Antony says would now be recognised as post-traumatic stress disorder.

"She was present at the liberation of concentration camps, she witnesses battles and tremendous loss of life, I did not meet the woman who was such a wonderful, ebullient person as she was before the war, it was difficult for a young person."

The book features one painting that Antony is particularly fond of and says the longer he lives with it, the "more signs and metaphors" he finds in it.

"I guarantee most times if I haven't seen it for a while, I'll find something new."

Teddy bear

The book, which takes its title from the biting incident, was written "as a bit of a whim," says Antony. Written originally for his grandchildren he never expected anyone to actually publish it.

Now he is juggling his regular work as curator of his parents' archive with mad dashes around the country to museums, galleries and libraries where he tells families about Picasso's love of animals, mischief and children.

"Some of the questions they ask are really enchanting. One child wanted to know what Picasso tasted like when I bit him. I said he tasted arty.

"Another asked what happened to the teddy in the picture of me and Picasso and the teddy. I had to tell her the truth of course, which is that he got left on a train. He is probably still going to backwards between Lewes and Victoria."

Antony will be talking about his book at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne on Saturday October 23.