Dora Maar from the end of her life until today is widely labeled the “Muse of Picasso”. As with most women in history they are relegated to being a postscript in a man's story, Dora was much more than that.
Born on November 22, 1907 Henriette Markovitch in Paris at the Tarnier Maternity Clinic at 89 Rue d’Assas. Her father Joseph was a Croatian architect and her mother Louise-Julie Voisin from Cognac and owned a fashion boutique. In 1910 she headed to Buenos Aires with her parents for her fathers job and returned to Paris a few years later. Enrolling in the Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs and l’Academie Julian in 1923 and 1927 one of the few that allowed women artists.
Photography was her art form and from early on her eye for details gor her into the exclusive clubs of artists. A meeting with Pierre Kéfer and Louis Chavance would lead her to Man Ray who she asked to work with. Man Ray hired her as a model instead and she was able to work closely with the Surrealist and learn many of his tricks.
In May 1931 she officially went by Dora Maar and photographed fashion houses for magazines and publications to pay the bills. Her more artistic work garnered her a place in the Exposition Intl in Brussels for her solo work and collaboration with Kéfer.
In December 1935 on a cold night at Les Deux Magots sitting alone and stabbing a knife between her open fingers she caught the eye of Picasso. He was instantly taken with her and her bold personality. Dora was at the top of her game and the peak of her career, Picasso was in the depth of his. Unable to paint or be inspired but that all changed the night he met Dora. The two began a relationship that would last eleven years built on a trust between two artists that inspired each other. Picasso painted her many times including his series of the crying woman.
In the final two years of their relationship, her mother died, her father left and she flung deep into depression and manic episodes. Picasso paid for her care and gave her a house in the south but she would spend the rest of her life in seclusion away from the world.
Listen to her full story and so much more in the newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway.
