Dora Maar
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Henriette Theodora Markovitch (22 November 1907 – 16 July 1997), known as Dora Maar, was a French photographer, painter, and poet. A romantic partner of
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
, Maar was depicted in a number of Picasso's paintings, including his ''
Portrait of Dora Maar ''Portrait of Dora Maar'' (French: ''Portrait de Dora Maar'') is a 1937 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It depicts Dora Maar, (original name Henriette Theodora Markovitch), the painter's lover, seated on a chair. It is part of the colle ...
and Dora Maar au Chat.''


Biography

Henriette Theodora Markovitch was the only daughter of Josip Marković (aka Joseph Markovitch) (1874–1969), a Croatian architect who studied in
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
,
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
, and then Paris where he settled in 1896, and of his spouse, Catholic-raised Louise-Julie Voisin (1877–1942), originally from
Cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cognac production falls under French appella ...
. In 1910, the family left for
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
where the father obtained several commissions including for the
embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...
of Austria-Hungary. His achievements earned him the honor of being decorated by Emperor
Francis Joseph I Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...
, even though he was "the only architect who did not make a fortune in Buenos Aires". In 1926, the family returned to Paris. Dora Maar, a
pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
she chose, took courses at the Central Union of Decorative Arts and the School of Photography. She also enrolled at the
École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...
and the Académie Julian which had the advantage of offering the same instruction to women as to men. Maar frequented André Lhote's workshop where she met
Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...
. While studying at the
École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...
, Maar met fellow female
surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
Jacqueline Lamba Jacqueline Lamba (17 November 1910 – 20 July 1993) was a French painter and surrealist artist. She was married to the surrealist André Breton. Biography Lamba was born in the Paris suburb of Saint-Mandé, on 17 November 1910 (contrary to a ...
. About her, Maar said, "I was closely linked with Jacqueline. She asked me, "where are those famous surrealists?" and I told her about Cafe de la Place Blanche." Lamba then began to frequent the cafe where she would eventually meet André Breton, whom she would later marry. When the workshop ceased its activities, Maar left Paris, alone, for
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
and then
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, where she photographed the effects of the economic depression following the
Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
in the United States. On her return, and with the help of her father, she opened another workshop at 29 Rue d'Astorg in the 8th ''arrondissement'' of Paris. In 1935, Maar was introduced to
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and became his companion and
muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
. She took pictures in his studio at the Grands Augustins and tracked the latter stages of his epic work, ''
Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...
''. She later acted as a model for his piece titled ''Monument à Apollinaire'', a tribute to the late poet
Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of t ...
.


Dora Maar the photographer

Maar's earliest surviving photographs were taken in the early 1920s while on a cargo ship going to the
Cape Verde Islands , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
. At the beginning of 1930, she set up a photography studio on rue Campagne-Première (14th arrondissement of Paris) with Pierre Kéfer, photographer, and decorator for Jean Epstein's 1928 film, ''
The Fall of the House of Usher "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839 in ''Burton's Gentleman's Magazine'', then included in the collection ''Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque'' in 1840. The short story ...
''. In the studio, Maar and Kefer worked together mostly on commercial photography for advertisements and fashion magazines. Her father assisted with her finances in this period of her life as she was establishing herself while trying to earn a living. The studio displayed fashion, advertising and nudes, and it became very successful. She met the photographer Brassaï with whom she shared the darkroom in the studio. Brassai once said that she had "bright eyes and an attentive gaze, a disturbing stare at times". During this time working in advertising and fashion photography, the influence of Surrealism could be seen in her work through her heavy use of mirrors and contrasting shadow

She felt that art should represent the content of reality through links with intuitions or ideas, rather than visually reproduce the natural. Maar also met Emmanuel Sougez, Louis-Victor Emmanuel Sougez, a photographer working for advertising, archeology and artistic director of the newspaper ''
L'Illustration ''L'Illustration'' was a weekly French newspaper published in Paris from 1843 to 1944. It was founded by Édouard Charton with the first issue published on 4 March 1843, it became the first illustrated newspaper in France then, after 1906, the ...
'', whom she considered a mentor. In 1932, she had an affair with the filmmaker
Louis Chavance Louis Chavance (1907–1979) was a French screenwriter. He also worked occasionally as a film editor and assistant director. He is best known for his screenplay for ''Le Corbeau'' which he first wrote in 1933 although the film was not made for anot ...
. Maar frequented the " October group", formed around
Jacques Prévert Jacques Prévert (; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the poetic realist moveme ...
and
Max Morise Max Morise (5 April 1900 – 29 October 1973) was a French artist, writer and actor, associated with the Surrealist movement in Paris from 1924 to 1929. He was friends with Robert Desnos and Roger Vitrac before they joined the Surrealist movement. ...
after their break from surrealism. She had her first publication in the magazine ''Art et Métiers Graphiques'' in 1932. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Galerie Vanderberg in Paris. It is the
gelatin silver The gelatin silver process is the most commonly used chemical process in black-and-white photography, and is the fundamental chemical process for modern analog color photography. As such, films and printing papers available for analog photography ...
works of the surrealist period that remain the most sought after by admirers: ''Portrait of Ubu'' (1936), ''29 rue d'Astorg'', black and white, collages,
photomontage Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...
s or superimpositions. The photograph represents the central character in a popular series of plays by Alfred Jarry called ''
Ubu Roi ''Ubu Roi'' (; "Ubu the King" or "King Ubu") is a play by French writer Alfred Jarry, then 23 years old. It was first performed in Paris in 1896, by Aurélien Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre at the Nouveau-Théâtre (today, the Théâtre de ...
''. The work was first shown at the Exposition Surréaliste d'objets at the Galerie Charles Ratton in Paris and at the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936. She also participated in Participates in Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, at the MoMA in New York the same year. Surrealist concepts and interests often aligned with the ideas of the political left of the time and so Maar became very politically active at this point in her life. After the fascist demonstrations of 6 February 1934, in Paris along with René Lefeuvre,
Jacques Soustelle Jacques Soustelle (3 February 1912 – 6 August 1990) was an important and early figure of the Free French Forces, a politician who served in the French National Assembly and at one time served as Governor General of Algeria, an anthropologist s ...
, supported by
Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995. ...
and Georges Bataille, she signed the tract "Appeal to the Struggle" written at the initiative of André Breton. Much of her work is highly influenced by leftist politics of the time, often depicting those who had been thrown into poverty by
the Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion ...
. She was part of an ultra-leftist association called "Masses", where she first met Georges Bataille, an anti-fascist organization called the Union of Intellectuals Against Fascism, and a radical collective of left-wing actors and writers called October. She also was involved in many Surrealist groups and often participated in demonstrations, convocations, and cafe conversations. She signed many manifestos, including one titled "When Surrealists were Right" in August 1935 which concerned the Congress of Paris, which had been held in March of that year. In 1935, she took a photo of fashion illustrator and designer Christian Berard that was described by writer and critic
Michael Kimmelman Michael Kimmelman (born May 8, 1958) is the architecture critic for ''The New York Times'' and has written about public housing, public space, landscape architecture, community development and equity, infrastructure and urban design. He has repor ...
as "wry and mischievous with only his head perceived above the fountain as if he were John the Baptist on a silver platter". In the 1980s, she made a number of
photogram A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The usual result is a negative shadow image th ...
s.


Relationship with Pablo Picasso

Maar first saw
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
at the end of 1935 when she was taking promotional shots on the set of the Jean Renoir film ''
The Crime of Monsieur Lange ''The Crime of Monsieur Lange'' (; French: ''Le Crime de Monsieur Lange'') is a 1936 film directed by Jean Renoir about a publishing cooperative. Imbued with the spirit of the communist/socialist Popular Front, which would score a major political v ...
''. She was captivated by him, but they did not formally meet. Maar was introduced to Picasso a few days later by their mutual friend
Paul Eluard Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
at Cafe des Deux Magots. The story of their first encounter was told by the writer
Jean-Paul Crespelle Jean-Paul Crespelle (24 December 1910 – 1994) was a journalist and author. He was born in Nogent-sur-Marne, Île-de-France, France. Crespelle wrote important historical works on the artistic and nocturnal life of the artists who gathered in ...
, "the young woman serious face, lit up by pale blue eyes which looked all the paler because of her thick eyebrows; a sensitive uneasy face, with light and shade passing alternately over it. She kept driving a small pointed pen-knife between her fingers into the wood of the table. Sometimes she missed and a drop of blood appeared between the roses embroidered on her black gloves... Picasso would ask Dora to give him the gloves and would lock them up in the showcase he kept for his mementos." Picasso was intrigued by Maar's seductive and masochistic behaviour, which served as inspiration for many of his works throughout their relationship. Their liaison would last nearly nine years, during which time Picasso did not end his relationship with
Marie-Thérèse Walter Marie-Thérèse Walter (13 July 1909 – 20 October 1977) was a French model and lover of Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935 and the mother of their daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Their relationship began when she was seventeen years old; he ...
, mother of his daughter Maya. Maar photographed the successive stages of the creation of ''
Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...
'', painted by Picasso in his studio in the rue des Grands-Augustins from May to June 1937; Picasso used these photographs in his creative process. She was Picasso's principal model, and he often represented her in tears. Maar boosted Picasso's understanding of politics and taught him skills in photography. Maar also introduced Picasso to the method of combining photography and printmaking, also known as the cliché verre technique.


Dora Maar as "The Weeping Woman"

Maar is very well known for her role as Picasso's lover, subject, and muse. As such, he painted many portraits of her. In the majority of these paintings, Maar was represented as a tortured, anguished woman. The most well known of these portraits is ''
The Weeping Woman ''The Weeping Woman'' (French: ''La Femme qui pleure'') is a series of oil on canvas paintings by Pablo Picasso, the last of which was created in late 1937. The paintings depict Dora Maar, Picasso's mistress and muse. ''The Weeping Woman'' paint ...
''. Picasso was very inspired by the tragedies of the Spanish Civil War, and he thought of Maar as a living depiction of the pain and suffering that people experienced during this time. Maar did not appreciate Picasso's depiction of her in this way. When asked about his portraits of her, she said "all portraits of me are lies. They're Picassos. Not one is Dora Maar". Her liaison with Picasso, who physically abused her and made her fight Marie-Therese Walter for his love, ended in 1943, although they met again episodically until 1946. Thus, on 19 March 1944, she played the role of ''Fat Anguish'' in the reading, at the home of
Michel Leiris Julien Michel Leiris (; 20 April 1901 in Paris – 30 September 1990 in Saint-Hilaire, Essonne) was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer. Part of the Surrealist group in Paris, Leiris became a key member of the College of Sociology with ...
, of Picasso' first play, '' Desire Caught by the Tail'', led by
Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
. In 1944, through the intermediary of
Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
, Maar met Jacques Lacan, who took care of her nervous breakdown through years of analysis, in which her mental health began to improve. Picasso bought her a house in
Ménerbes Ménerbes (; oc, Menèrba) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. The walled village on a hilltop in the Luberon mountains, foothills of the French Alps, constitutes the main s ...
,
Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Nicolas de Staël Nicolas de Staël (; January 5, 1914 – March 16, 1955) was a French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. He also worked with collage, illustration and textiles. Early life ...
(who lived in the same village), and turned to abstract painting.


Dora Maar the painter

The painted works of Maar remained unrecognized until their posthumous sale, organized in 1999, which made the public and professionals discover a very personal production that had never left her studio. Maar abandoned photography for painting alongside leaving Picasso and his influence, or rather the crushing presence of the painter, who had imposed on her a cubistic style. Pushed by Picasso to express herself in this style, one can wonder about Picasso's desire to remove his lover from the domain where she excelled, and to constrain her in a style of painting which he had long mastered. It was from the painful separation of Picasso that Maar truly became a painter. Tragic figurative works, such as the ''Portrait of Eluard'', or ''Self-Portrait'' to ''The Child of 1946'', translate, in dark tones, the pain of post-war years. After years of struggling with depression, Maar confined herself within her own memories. It is between the 1960s and 70s that there was the beginning of a respite when she experimented with abstract formats in shimmering colors. It was in the 1980s, though that the painter expressed herself fully in her many paintings of the
Luberon The Luberon ( or ; Provençal: ''Leberon'' or ''Leberoun'' ) is a massif in central Provence in Southern France, part of the French Prealps. It has a maximum elevation of and an area of about . It is composed of three mountain ranges (from w ...
region. Paintings of the landscapes around her house in Ménerbes, showed locations dominated by wind and clouds, strongly revealing the struggle of an artist with the ghosts of her past.


Death

Maar spent her last years in her apartment in Rue de Savoie, in the Left Bank of Paris. She died on 16 July 1997, at 89 years old. She was buried in the Bois-Tardieu cemetery in
Clamart Clamart () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. The town is divided into two parts, separated by a forest: ''bas Clamart'', the historical centre, and ''petit Clamart'' with urbaniz ...
. Her experiments with photograms and dark-room photography were only found posthumously.


Legacy

Although Maar is mostly remembered as one of Picasso's lovers, there have been many recent exhibits presenting her as an artist in her own right, including exhibitions at the Haus der Kunst,
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, 13 October 2001 – 6 January 2002; the Centre de la Vieille Charité,
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
, 20 January – 4 May 2002; the Centre Cultural Tecla Sala,
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, 15 May – 15 July 2002; the
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, 5 June 2019 – 29 July 2019; and the
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, 20 November 2019 – 15 March 2020. Maar was played by
Samantha Colley Samantha Colley (22 March 1989) is an English actress having had roles in various theatre and television productions, including playing the lover of both Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in the National Geographic TV series ''Genius''. Educat ...
in the 2018 season of ''
Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabili ...
'', which focuses on the life and art of Picasso.


References


Further reading

* Louise Baring: ''Dora Maar: Paris in the Time of Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, and Picasso'', Rizzoli, 2017 *Brigitte Benkemoun, ''Finding Dora Maar: An Artist, an Address Book, a Life.''. Trans. Jody Gladding. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2020. *
Mary Ann Caws Mary Ann Caws (born 1933) is an American author, translator, art historian and literary critic. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Literature, English, and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, and ...
: ''Dora Maar With And Without Picasso: A Biography'', Thames & Hudson * Mary Ann Caws, ''Les vies de Dora Maar : Bataille, Picasso et les surréalistes'', Paris, Thames & Hudson, 2000, 224 p. () * Georgiana Colvile, ''Scandaleusement d'elles : trente-quatre femmes surréalistes'', Paris, J.-M. Place, 1999 (), p. 179 à 185 * James Lord, ''Picasso and Dora : a personal memoir'', 1993 * Judi Freeman: ''Picasso and the weeping women : the years of Marie-Thérèse Walter & Dora Maar'' * Anne Baldassari: ''Picasso : love and war, 1935–1945'' *
Zoé Valdés Zoé Valdés (born May 2, 1959 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban  novelist, poet, scriptwriter, film director and blogger. She studied at the ''Instituto Superior Pedagógico Enrique José Varona'', but did not graduate. From 1984 to 1988, she worke ...
: ''The weeping woman'' : a novel, 2013 *
Alicia Dujovne Ortiz Alicia Dujovne Ortiz (born in 1940) is an Argentine journalist and author. Biography Dujovne Ortiz was born in Buenos Aires. She is Jewish. She earned a degree in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Buenos Aires and contributed to num ...
: ''Dora Maar prisonnière du regard'', Le Livre de Poche, 2005. * Olivia Lahs-Gonzales: ''Defining eye : women photographers of the 20th century : selections from the Helen Kornblum collection'' Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at :fr:Dora Maar; see its history for attribution. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maar, Dora 1907 births 1997 deaths 20th-century French painters 20th-century French women artists French women painters French women photographers École des Beaux-Arts alumni Académie Julian alumni French artists' models French surrealist artists Muses Analysands of Jacques Lacan French people of Croatian descent French expatriates in Croatia French expatriates in Austria French Roman Catholics Artists from Paris Women surrealist artists 20th-century women photographers Pablo Picasso