Picasso painted this portrait of Surrealist photographer Dora Maar (1907–1997), then his lover, during their yearlong sojourn at Royan, a small town on France’s southern Atlantic coast, from which they witnessed the outbreak of World War II. Her face and body have been radically distorted. The garish background, with its irregular patterns that seem to tilt and sway, might represent the wallpaper that decorated their rooms at the Hôtel du Tigre.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower center): 26.10.39 / Picasso; inscribed and dated (verso, in black paint, upper right): Royan / 26.10.39
[Louis Carré, Paris and New York]; [Pierre Colle, Paris]; probably Sidney Janis, New York (possibly by 1946); [Perls Galleries (Klaus G. Perls), New York, by 1965; stock no. 6581]; Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, New York (until 1998; their gift to MMA)
New York. Perls Galleries. "Pablo Picasso: Highlights in Retrospect," October 12–November 20, 1965, no. 16 (as "Dora Maar Assise," lent by a private collection).
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. "La peinture française: Collections américaines," May 13–September 15, 1966, no. 144.
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Exposition Picasso," October 15–December 4, 1977, no. 49.
Nagoya. Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art. "Exposition Picasso," December 13–26, 1977, no. 49.
Cultural Center of Fukuoka. "Exposition Picasso," January 5–22, 1978, no. 49.
Kyoto. National Museum of Modern Art. "Exposition Picasso," January 28–March 5, 1978, no. 49.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective," May 22–September 16, 1980, unnumbered cat. (p. 363).
Düsseldorf. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. "'... und nicht die leiseste Spur einer Vorschrift'—Positionen unabhängiger Kunst in Europa um 1937," December 4, 1987–January 31, 1988, not in catalogue.
Cologne. Museum Ludwig. "Picasso im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 1939 bis 1945," April 27–June 19, 1988, no. 3.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso and the Weeping Women: The Years of Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar," June 12–September 4, 1994, not in catalogue (brochure no. 79; as "Dora Maar Seated," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Klaus Perls, New York).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895–1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 113).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 86.
Harriet and Sidney Janis. Picasso: The Recent Years, 1939–1946. Garden City, N. Y., 1946, pl. 75, call it "Seated Woman before a Figured Background" and date it October 1941.
Pierre Cabanne. Le Siècle de Picasso, I: La Jeunesse, le cubisme, le théâtre, l'amour, 1881–1937. Paris, 1975, ill. between pp. 344 and 345.
Richard David Story. "The Tops in Town this Week." New York Magazine (June 20, 1994), p. 33.
J[ason]. E[dward]. K[aufman]. "Perls Adds Gems to the Met." Art Newspaper no. 61 (July–August 1996), p. 14.
"Treasures for Met." Los Angeles Times (May 21, 1996), p. F2.
Sabine Rewald in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1997–1998." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 56 (Fall 1998), p. 64, ill. (color).
Mariel Jardines. The Picasso Project: Picasso's Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings, and Sculpture, A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue, 1885–1973. Ed. Herschel Chipp Alan Wofsy. Vol. 7, Europe at War, 1939–1940. San Francisco, 1998, p. 65, no. 39-347, ill.
Gary Tinterow inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 12.
Sabine Rewald inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 232–33, no. 86, ill. (color).
Shawn Digney-Peer inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 232, 234, fig. 86.1 (X-radiograph).
Marilyn McCully inPicasso: 14 Sketchbooks. Exh. cat., Pace Gallery. New York, 2023, pp. 11–12, fig. 18 (color).
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1929
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
