(Originally published by the Daily News on April 9, 1973. This story was written by Bernard Valery.)
PARIS, April 8 — Pablo Picasso, 91, the most influential and prolific painter of the 20th century, died today at his country home at Mougins on the French Riviera, overlooking the rust-colored hills and the blue Mediterranean which had become his spiritual home.
He died of pulmonary edema, an accumulation of water in the lungs. Although he had had several bouts with flu during the winter, his death came as a surprise to his wife, Jacqueline, and to the few friends who had visited him recently, still hard at work in his immense, cluttered atelier.
He had seemed as indestructible as the thousands of art works he had created in various media during three quarters of a century. He had just recently made arrangements for a showing next month of 201 of his latest works at nearby Avignon.
At 11:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. News York time), Mrs. Picasso summoned Dr. Georges Rance, the family physician, but by the time he arrived just 10 minutes later, the Spanish-born painter, who during his life had provoked several revolutions in modern art was dead.
