Muses and masters

A group of seventy-five drawings which the artist, Dora Maar, called “études” or “studies” are published here for the very first time anywhere. The drawings document the period after Maar’s lover Pablo Picasso completed his masterpiece Guernica (1937), the creation of which the renowned Surrealist photographer documented and at which time Maar decided to leave photography and resume the career of a painter. The Études depict this moment, through Maar’s restless interpretations of famous works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Dürer, Vermeer, Poussin, Delacroix, and Matisse. But it is the group of drawings after Spanish masters such as El Greco, Velázquez and Picasso that stand out, reflecting her love for Spanish culture and language. The Études are joined by works by Picasso and others that provide context, as do essays on Dora Maar and the training of women artists in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and on the tempestuous relationship of Picasso and Dora Maar. This extensively illustrated publication includes an introductory essay by Mary Ann Caws, renowned writer, intellect, and Maar biographer. An essay by Richard P. Townsend investigates these drawings as documents of this decisive moment in her career and relationship with Picasso and contextualizes her within the French academic system in which she was trained. A second, short essay explores the iconography of the chair in Picasso and Maar’s work. Full catalogue entries and a checklist of the entire Sandra Hindman Collection of Dora Maar and Picasso material complete the volume.