Pablo Picasso

The Weeping Woman, I is an elaboration of one of the central figures in Picasso’s famous mural-size painting Guernica, executed some months earlier. Like the painting, the print was created in reaction to the bombing on April 26, 1937, of the defenseless town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The image is an emblem of the artist’s homeland, torn apart by that conflict, and, more universally, of the horrors of war.

The portrait also reflects Picasso’s conflicted love life, appearing to conflate the features of two women with whom he was then involved. Dora Maar, known for her volatile temper, is represented by the glossy black hair, tapered fingernails, and tearful state, in which Picasso often portrayed her. Marie-Thérèse Walter is referenced in the distinctive nose and forehead, features the artist frequently depicted in the 1930s. The image is composed of bulbous, contorted, and distended shapes and a veritable battlefield of tangled lines, heightening the sense of explosive emotion. Picasso also capitalized on the potential of etching and drypoint to create sharply incised details, such as nail-like tears and scissor-like fingers, which reinforce the notion of pain being inflicted. He accorded great significance to this large etching, which he developed and reworked through seven independent stages, or states. This is the seventh and final one.