Picasso’s studio was a “temple of a kind of Picasso religion”, according to his late lover Françoise Gilot. Among its regular visitors was the photographer Brassai who was known for his clumsiness and Picasso took pleasure in taunting him with the words, “Well, what are you going to destroy today?”
One day, when Brassai wanted to take a picture of a cat figurine and swung his tripod dangerously close to the sculpture, Picasso was afraid Braissai would break off the sculpture’s tail and told him to leave the tripod and fix his eyes instead!
That was a bit unfair given the fact that Brassai had protruding eyes, probably due to a thyroid issue. However, he was not offended but burst out laughing so badly that he tripped over his tripod and fell backwards into a pool of water that Picasso had set out for his dog.
Everyone was splashed with water and Picasso was in good spirits for the rest of the day.
(Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake, 1967, Leben mit Picasso [transl. from the English ‘Life with Picasso’], Frankfurt/ Main and Hamburg: Fischer, pp. 14, 33.)