Picasso’s Hidden Muse: Dora Maar Portrait Surfaces After 80 Years
A portrait by Pablo Picasso of Dora Maar, one of his most famous muses, has re-emerged after 80 years—and is coming to auction.
Pablo Picasso painted many portraits of the artist Dora Maar, who was in a relationship with him from 1935 to 1944. One of these portraits, called Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat, completed in 1943, has been in a private collection since 1944. Until recently, it was only known from a black-and-white photograph in a catalog. It was recently unveiled to the public once more at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, where auction house Lucien Paris will offer it for sale on October 24. The painting will be on exhibit from October 21-24.
The painting is expected to sell for at least €8 million, or $9.45 million. Art crime investigator and historian Arthur Brand told CNN he expects it to sell for even more. Auctioneer Christophe Lucien told The Guardian, “It is not only a milestone in the history of art but also in the private life of Picasso,” and “Discovering it is a big moment in our lives as experts.”
The portrait in Picasso’s signature Cubist style and vivid colors. Despite the lack of realism, it conveys intense sadness. There are two main interpretations of the vivid emotion the painting expresses. There is a personal level; Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat is believed to capture Maar’s reaction to Picasso telling her he was leaving her for another woman. There is also a larger-scale meaning. At the time it was painted, Picasso and Maar lived and worked in Paris, which was occupied by the Nazis. They considered modern art like Picasso’s and Maar’s “degenerate;” the two artists, like many people, feared for their safety and careers.
Maar (1907-1997) was known to call Picasso’s paintings of her “lies” and say, “I’m still too famous as Picasso’s mistress to be accepted as a painter.” However, she was an accomplished photographer, exhibiting with the Surrealists in the 1930s. When she met Picasso, she was a promotional photographer for Jean Renoir’s film The Crime of Monsieur Lange. During their relationship, she documented his work on Guernica. She continued painting for decades and practiced experimental photography in the 1980s.
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