Dora Maar: history's most influential Picasso's Muse

In the life of the great Pablo Picasso had many women, but one of them was in the artist's life a special place. Dora Maar was the main Muse of genius, his lover, his closest friend in one person, which happens infrequently. This woman was talented photographer, perhaps best in its time, but because of the connection with Picasso she's destined that her name was only mentioned together with the name of the Master.

At the time of his acquaintance in 1935, Picasso, Maar was already an accomplished people in the art world. Dora was well known among connoisseurs of photography and readers of fashion magazines, and Picasso was already considered as a classic painting.

Dora Maar, born Henriette Theodora marković, met the artist in Paris, where she worked as a photographer at the Studio Billancourt Studios. They provided each other mutual friends and this meeting identified the lives of two artists for years to come. Picasso was 26 years older, but that did not stop the affair, which lasted for eight years.

Many believe that Dora was not only the artist's mistress, but his main inspiration. Picasso had a lot of Muse but Maar recognize the most influential of them. The relationship between them was not easy, though, because in life, Picasso still had a place for Marie-Therese Walter, another mistress who bore him a daughter, Maya.

Interesting, but these meager facts, and is limited to information about the Maar, which was always a part of the biography of his great lover. Only now taken the first attempt to separate an extraordinary person and a talented photographer from Picasso and understand her work.First Maar remember 20 years ago, Mary Ann KOs, who wrote a book about Dora. This was before the personality and creativity of this woman appeared first interest. KOs calls Maar great talent and believes that all works of the artist even made in the style fashion, filled with drama:

Mary Ann KOs warns against a one-sided view of the Maar, as a photographer of fashion magazines. This woman had a lot of serious works, such as the great series of shots of Barcelona, where Dora shooting people, which the war and the indifference of the authorities condemned to starvation.

Photographed woman in the poor suburbs of Paris, covering the city with a ring. In one of these places, which is called "La zone" in horrible conditions lived more than 30 thousand people. Their pictures have become one of the major milestones in the works Maar.

But it was all for the soul, and the main income of Dora brought cooperation with weekly and monthly magazines such as Rester Jeune. It was a promotional pictures, fashion work, and even erotic photo shoot that contemporaries recognized gloomy, but talented. But serious photography Maar was known only to connoisseurs attending serious exhibition, as its main theme was social inequality and injustice.

Picasso writes "the Bombing of Guernica"

Have Maar and images with Picasso. One of the most famous is the snapshot of the artist at work on "Guernica Bombing," written in 1937. Pablo Picasso also have a picture, the creation of which was inspired by Dora — "Weeping woman", is also written in 1937.

"Weeping woman" by Pablo Picasso

There is an opinion that the painting the artist posed itself Maar, but the Muse of Picasso has always denied this, claiming that never was a model of the master. However, it is not denied that the heroine's face paintings are some of its features. She attracted a genius not only looks but also his sharp wit and intelligence. Due to the fact that Dora knew Spanish, they were free to talk about events which were so rich in the 30-40-ies of XX century.

The relationship between Maar and Picasso began to weaken in 1942, and soon Dora left Paris and moved to live in Ménerbes in Provence. It is likely that the woman did not come to terms with the fact that parallel to it through a life of Picasso pass and other women. Their parting Mary Ann KOs says:

Being with Picasso, Maar was seen in the context with its ingenious man, so a large part of its artistic heritage have not been claimed and remembered about it just now. The exhibition, which features 250 works of Dora Maar took place in the modern Tate gallery in London, and before that she was seen at the Pompidou Center in Paris. In 2020 the exhibition will travel to Los Angeles and this is only the beginning.