31. Portrait

One of the most influential artists of the twentieth century; the co-creator, with Georges Braque, of cubism; Pablo Picasso focused his entire career around the creed that "work keeps you alive," continuing to create almost uninterrupted for eight decades. He will dedicate a whole series to "The Weeping Woman", a continuation of the tragic ethos from the painting "Guernica". Persisting in centering his artistic creed around the Spanish Civil War, he creates a profound illustration of suffering. Press images depicting the horrors of the war embedded in the artist's soul a craving to embody the most piercing feelings. The muse of the entire series was Dora Maar, the photographer he met in 1935. She was his life partner from 1936 and until 1944, and she also frequently modeled for him. For Picasso, however, she remains "The Weeping Woman" as the artist himself claimed. We find, in the present work, the iconography from Guernica. Intrigued by the subject, he will revisit it in different forms, distorting the lines in a way that transcribes his internal experiences as truthfully as possible. The woman's suffering becomes the suffering of Spain and vice versa. There are several versions of the painting, most of them created in the period September-October 1937. Some of them are in important collections such as - Tate in London; The National Gallery in Victoria, Australia; The Art Museum in Los Angeles and others. The image of the grieving woman has sometimes been interpreted in the key of a Mater Dolorosa, thus emphasizing her importance.

Dimensions

width 20 cm, height 28 cm

Description

cromolitografie, signed lower right, under the frame, in pencil, "Picasso"; numbered lower left, under the frame, in pencil, "58/333"

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