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Dora Maar in an Armchair

1939
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Dora Maar in an Armchair
  • Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
  • Date: 1939
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 28 7/8 × 23 3/4 in. (73.3 × 60.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls Collection, 1998
  • Object Number: 1998.23
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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