For the past month, the Nassau County Museum of Art has hosted several events commemorating their ongoing exhibit of the artworks of Pablo Picasso.

This Saturday, April 2, the museum will host one of the highlights of the entire exhibition, a lecture by Rosamond Bernier, the distinguished author who will share stories of Picasso and his legendary Parisian world of artists, writers and literary figures. The talk, entitled "The Picasso I Knew," begins at 6:30 p.m.

After World War II, Rosamond Bernier spent more than 20 years in Paris, initially as European features editor for Vogue magazine. She became friends with the masters of the School of Paris: Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, Max Ernst and Alberto Giacometti.

Ms. Bernier knew them as few foreigners did, and when she founded the art magazine L'OEIL in 1955 they did all they could to help her. L'OEIL soon established itself as an international review of the highest quality. According to critics, to read it was an education in itself, with well-chosen and unexpected images and with distinguished French, English and American contributors.

Following her return to the US in 1971, Bernier embarked on a new career as a lecturer. It was immediately clear that she had exceptional gifts as a speaker. Leonard Bernstein wrote, "Madame Bernier has the gift of instant communication to a degree which I have rarely encountered."

Rosamond Bernier's lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art always sold out months in advance, and have been videotaped and shown on PBS as Live at the Met. She has been the subject of articles in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, Town & Country and other publications and has also been profiled on Today, 60 Minutes and CNN's World Day.

"The Picasso I Knew" is sponsored by Simon Paston and Sons Agency. Admission is $100 and includes a reception with Ms. Bernier. Attendance is limited; reserve early. To reserve, log on to nassaumuseum.com or call 484-9338, ext. 12.

This Saturday's event is only the first of two lectures on Picasso and his influence on the age he worked and lived in.

On Sunday, April 3, Dr. Charles Riley will present his own lecture, "Picasso in the Jazz Age." Dr. Riley's lecture, which will also take place at the museum and which will begin at 4 p.m., discusses Picasso's friendships with the songwriter Cole Porter, with American expatriate novelists Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and with other figures that helped to forge the modernist movement in painting, music and literature.

On Friday, April 8, Julius Harris will lead a sampling of Spanish wines all as part of "Picasso Pours," another event celebrating the Picasso exhibit. Harris is the museum's resident wine connoisseur.

"Picasso Pours" will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on the evening of April 8. Wines from several regions of Spain will be available for sampling. The event also includes light refreshments and a docent-led tour of the Picasso exhibit, beginning at 5:15 p.m.

See the listings on page two of this issue of The Roslyn News for more information, including costs, to both the Riley and Harris lectures.

The Nassau County Museum of Art is located at One Museum Drive (just off Northern Boulevard, Route 25A) in Roslyn Harbor.