Friday Photo: Picasso, Bullish on the Beach

When it comes to great men on the beach, our heart has always been with Einstein (and Robert Wilson, and Philip Glass). But where more literal beaches are concerned, we’re biased toward those in the south of France, particularly in the 1920s, when wealthy American expats Gerald and Sara Murphy frolicked on and off the sand with an eclectic group of friends that included a young Pablo Picasso. Back then the artist favored a less-the-breezy fedora to shield his cap of black hair from the sun, but by 1949, he had moved on to bolder Côte d’Azur chapeaux: a minotaur mask, here worn backward in a photo by Gjon Mili for LIFE magazine.