Weeping Woman with Handkerchief

© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
View comments
No comments have been posted yet.
Add a comment
Please log in to add comments.
Enter your LACMA Collections username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
New to our collections website? Sign up to create an account and start saving your favorites. Please note that this account is not the same as the MyLACMA account you may have for ticketing and membership transactions.
Current tags
This item has not been tagged yet.
Please log in to add tags.
Enter your LACMA Collections username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
New to our collections website? Sign up to create an account and start saving your favorites. Please note that this account is not the same as the MyLACMA account you may have for ticketing and membership transactions.
* Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site. Other images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. By using any of these images you agree to LACMA's Terms of Use.

Weeping Woman with Handkerchief

Spain, 1937
Paintings
Oil on canvas
21 × 17 1/2 in. (53.34 × 44.45 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mitchell (55.90)
Modern Art
Currently on public view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Since gallery displays may change often, please contact us before you visit to make certain this item is on view.

Provenance

The artist (1881-1973); given to  Christian Zervos (1881-1970), Paris in 1938. Mr. and Mrs....
The artist (1881-1973); given to  Christian Zervos (1881-1970), Paris in 1938. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mitchell, Beverly Hills, by January 1941; given in 1955 to Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art; transferred in 1961 to LACMA.
More...

Label

In early June 1937, Picasso completed his monumental antiwar canvas Guernica....
In early June 1937, Picasso completed his monumental antiwar canvas Guernica. During this time, he was preoccupied by the figure of the weeping woman, which first appeared among the sketches for his depiction of the devastating bombing raid on the Basque town of the painting’s title. On June 26, Picasso painted Weeping Woman with Handkerchief. Modeled on his muse and partner, Surrealist photographer Dora Maar, Picasso’s portrayal conveys despair. One hand is silhouetted against her chest, with the white gauze handkerchief crumpled into a shapeless mass. By the time this painting was completed, Guernica had been installed in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris International Exposition, where it galvanized the world to address the horrors of the civil war raging in Spain.

Wall label, 2021.
More...

Bibliography

  • Picasso for Portland. Portland: Portland Art Museum, 1970.
  • Segui, Shinichi. Pablo Picasso. Tokyo: San-Ichi Shobo, 1964.
  • Shapiro, Michael E., ed.  Rings: Five Passions in World Art.  New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996.
  • Picasso for Portland. Portland: Portland Art Museum, 1970.
  • Segui, Shinichi. Pablo Picasso. Tokyo: San-Ichi Shobo, 1964.
  • Shapiro, Michael E., ed.  Rings: Five Passions in World Art.  New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996.
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
  • Barron, Stephanie. Envisioning Modernism: The Janice and Henri Lazarof Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2012.
  • Muchnic, Suzanne. LACMA So Far: Portrait of a Museum in the Making. San Marino, California: Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2015.
More...