Contemporary reflections on a work in the Tate collection

Artwork page for ‘Weeping Woman’, Pablo Picasso, 1937 During 1937 Picasso became obsessed with the motif of a weeping woman, which symbolised for him the anguish and devastation of the Spanish Civil War. ,

Madrid exh. In addition, the Musée Picasso has a small The subject of the weeping woman was not wholly confined to this period between May and October. Madrid exh.cat., 1981, p.12322 June 1937, pencil and gouache on paper 640 × 495, private collection, France (not in Zervos), repr. During 1937 Picasso became obsessed with the motif of a weeping woman, which symbolised for him the anguish and devastation of the Spanish Civil War. According to Sweeney, his trip to Paris in November 1937 was probably motivated by business concerning his organisation of the exhibition ‘Surrealist Objects and Poems’ at the London Gallery, which opened on 24 November. In July of the same year he acquired the collection of René Gaffé which included thirteen works by Picasso, notably ‘Danseuse nègre’, 1907 and ‘Jeune Fille à la mandoline’, 1910. Madrid exh.

Picasso probably heard of the tragic events in the paper he customarily read, The bombardment of Guernica was part of Franco's campaign against the Basque province of Vizcaya. 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.

The Weeping Woman is an oil on canvas painted by Pablo Picasso in France in 1937. Los Angeles exh.

According to Maar, Picasso was entertaining Christian Zervos and his wife one afternoon when a photograph of the painting was urgently required for an edition of Maar recalls that Picasso painted the Tate Gallery's ‘Weeping Woman’ over several consecutive days, completing and dating the work on 26 October. Penrose made no identifiable record of the price agreed for the work but his diary for 1937 notes a figure of £500 for an unspecified Picasso purchase, while his diary for 1938 records on 23 January the figure of £284, again for an unspecified work.

She was intellectually involved with a group of Surrealists committed to Popular Front policies and she was articulate and persuasive.

Madrid exh.cat., 1981, p.853 June 1937, pencil, crayon and gouache on paper 232 × 293 (Zervos IX 1958, no.40), repr. She does not recall owning or wearing the red and purple hat depicted in the Tate Gallery's portrait but the heavy tweed jacket she was wearing for the sitting survives as a ‘memory’ in Picasso's treatment.The iconography of the weeping woman appears to owe much to Dora Maar's own character and Picasso's perception of it, although, as has been noted above, Picasso depicted his mistress in a different light prior to ‘Guernica’. I couldn't make a portrait of her laughing.

cat., 1981, p.7127 May 1937, pencil and gouache on paper 232 × 293 (Zervos IX 1958, no.36), repr. cat., p.7528 May 1937, pencil, crayon and gouache on paper 232 × 293 (Zervos IX 1958, no.35), repr. In May 1937 Picasso's mother wrote to him from Barcelona that smoke from the burning city … Zervos IX 1958, p.30 nos.66–8, 70–2The Musée Picasso in Paris owns two sheets, dated 24 and 26 October 1937, on which Picasso had explored various details of the weeping woman, including eyes and handkerchiefs (repr. In 1980 he stated, ‘Picasso was very much a Surrealist and was greatly influenced by them, even if he wasn't a member of the group’ (‘Picasso the Surrealist Realist’, excerpts from a discussion between Roland Penrose and Dominique Bozo, In the last postscript there are multiple implications from the world of dreams - eyes carried in small boats about to capsize in the tempest - tears pouring from the eyes are at the same time fingers pressing a white handkerchief to her face.

cat., 1981, p.873 June 1937, pencil, crayon and gouache on paper 232 × 293 (Zervos IX 1958, no.44), repr. I have more than once been shaken by the emotional strength of a painting seen for the first time in an artist's studio, but this contained an unprecedented blend of Penrose had known Picasso since first being introduced to him at the artist's Paris studio by Paul Eluard early in 1935. Madrid exh. She was intimately involved with the creation of ‘Guernica’ and was chiefly responsible for making the comprehensive photographic record of the mural's progress to completion and display.According to John Richardson (‘Your Show of Shows’, Picasso was introduced to Dora Maar by Eluard at the Deux Magots café in Saint-Germain in the spring of 1936.