- The Weeping Woman painting from 1937 depicts Pablo Picasso's lover Dora Maar with features conveying pain and anguish.
- Picasso was obsessed with exploring the emotions of women during the Spanish Civil War and painted Dora Maar as "always weeping".
- The vibrant colors and facial expression of the weeping woman were meant to capture attention and convey a sense of pain, torture, and having no one to talk to.
4. Weeping
Woman
For me she is the weeping
woman. For years I have
painted her in tortured
forms with no pleasure. It
was the deep reality, not the
superficial one…. Dora, for
me was always a weeping
woman…. And It is
important, because women
are suffering machines.
Pablo Picasso
6. Subject
Dora Maar (1907-
1997), who was Picasso's
lover from the mid-1930s
until the end of the second
world war.
It has the features of a
specific person, Dora Maar,
whom Picasso described as
"always weeping". She was
in fact his close collaborator
in the time of his life when
he was most involved with
politics.
7. Analysis
This painting captured
everybody’s attention
because of the vibrate
colors and the weeping
woman’s facial
expression.
She looks as though she
be tortured and
discriminated in a
courtroom.
Her face expresses pain
and anguish as though
she has no one in the
world to talk too.
8. Analysis
She’s grinding her teeth
while trying to close her
mouth with her hand as
though she has so much
to hide.
Her hair is let loose and
straight as this is the
only thing that may be
free and not tided up.
We see so much pain in
her eyes as its like
shattered glass and the
way her eyebrows are
structured.
9. Analysis
The handkerchief she
stuffs in her mouth is like
a shard of glass.
Her eyes are black
apertures.
Focal area is blue and
white, associated with
pain and anguish.
Sharp lines dissecting
face, shows broken
feelings and broken
woman.
10. Analysis
The oil on canvas
painting displays her loss
through angles, lines and
color.
Cubism elements are
used.
11. Cultural
Framework
Hat represents middle or
higher social class.
Created in Spain during
the world war.
Handkerchief reflects
time and era.