The Weeping Woman
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Weeping Woman (Dora), (60 х 49 cm, 23 ⅝ х 19 ¼ inches) is an oil on canvas painted by Pablo Picasso in 1937. Picasso was intrigued with the subject, and revisited the theme numerous times that year.[1] This painting was the final and most elaborate of the series. It has been in the collection of the Tate Gallery in London since 1987.
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[edit] Echoes of Guernica
The Weeping Woman series is regarded as a thematic continuation of the tragedy depicted in Picasso's epic painting Guernica. In focusing on the image of a woman crying, the artist was no longer painting the effects of the Spanish Civil War directly, but rather referring to a singular universal image of suffering.[2]
The model for the painting, indeed for the entire series, was Dora Maar, who was working as a professional photographer when Picasso met her in 1936; she was the only photographer allowed to document the successive stages of Guernica while Picasso painted it in 1937.[3]
[edit] Dora Maar
Maar was Picasso's mistress from 1936 until 1944. In the course of their relationship Picasso painted her in a number of guises, some realistic, some benign, others tortured or threatening.[4] Picasso explained:
"For me she's the weeping woman. For years I've painted her in tortured forms, not through sadism, and not with pleasure, either; just obeying a vision that forced itself on me. It was the deep reality, not the superficial one."[5]
"Dora, for me, was always a weeping woman....And it's important, because women are suffering machines."[6]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Weeping Woman at the Tate Gallery [1]
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