- Title
- Weeping Woman with Handkerchief
- Date Made
- 1937
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 21 × 17 1/2 in. (53.34 × 44.45 cm)
- Accession Number
- 55.90
- Collecting Area
- Modern Art
- Curatorial Notes
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.
- Provenance
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.
- Selected Bibliography
- Segui, Shinichi. Pablo Picasso. Tokyo: San-Ichi Shobo, 1964.
