Dora Maar au Chat

Last updated

Dora Maar au Chat
Dora Maar Au Chat.jpg
Artist Pablo Picasso
Year1941
MediumOil on canvas
Movement Cubism
Dimensions128.3 cm× 95.3 cm(50.5 in× 37.5 in)
LocationPrivate collection

Dora Maar au Chat (English: Dora Maar with Cat) is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1941 and depicts Dora Maar (original name Henriette Theodora Markovitch), the artist's lover, seated on a chair with a small cat perched on her shoulders. The painting is listed as one of the most expensive paintings, after achieving a price of $95 million at Sotheby's on 3 May 2006. It is currently the sixth-highest-selling painting by Picasso.

Contents

Background

The canvas is one of many portraits of Dora Maar painted by Pablo Picasso over their nearly decade-long relationship. Their relationship began when Picasso met Maar on the set of Jean Renoir's film Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, where she was working as a movie photographer. They were formally introduced by the French Surrealist poet Paul Éluard. Picasso fell in love with the 29-year-old Maar at the age of 55 and the couple began living together. Picasso was drawn to Maar not only for her beauty, but also for her intellect and artistic nature. Like Picasso, Maar was an artist, photographer and poet. She shared Picasso's political views and also spoke Spanish. Their relationship was intensely passionate and tempestuous and she challenged Picasso both intellectually and artistically. Maar assisted Picasso with his artwork, particularly during his creation of Guernica , which she documented with photographs. [1]

This painting was made in 1941, at the beginning of World War II. Picasso had already painted Maar many times before creating this painting. When the Nazis occupied France, the tension between Maar and Picasso increased, resulting in Picasso portraying Maar in a much more abstract way, sometimes depicting her in tears. [2]

Description

Dora Maar au Chat is one of the largest portraits of the subject by Picasso. It is an oil on canvas painting measuring 128.3 cm x 95.3 cm and is signed by the artist on the lower left corner. As Picasso's mistress and main model, Dora Maar was the artist's main source of inspiration and his artistic companion. The painting was created in 1941 during the midst of their tempestuous relationship.

The painting is a rare, three-quarter length portrait of Maar, who is sitting in an armchair. Picasso used a vibrant palette to depict Maar's clothing and gave particular attention to details of the angles of the chair and the pattern on the dress. Maar's hat is particularly significant, as it signifies her involvement in the Surrealist movement. Like a crown on her head, the hat is ornate, embellished with colourful feathers and red trim. The presence of the subject is pronounced, reflecting the way a queen would sit on her throne. [2]

In this painting, Picasso aims to depict not only Dora's beauty, but also her temperament. He once described her as an "Afghan cat" in reference to her personality. The presence of the cat on her shoulder offers special significance, as it reflects the traditional pairing of cats and women in art that was used to suggest female cunning and sexual aggression. This theme is particularly noticeable in the way that the artist depicted Maar's long manicured fingernails, which in Picasso's portrait have been rendered as long talons. [2]

Picasso depicted Maar's portrait in the Cubist style. He used faceted planes and blocks of colour to sculpt her body. The outlines of shapes in the body are accentuated in black, while Maar's face is sculpted in white. The composition is a construction of shapes with vertically inclined planes that contrast with the lines of the wooden floor in the background. Maar's face is presented from two angles, one half in profile with the eye looking straight at the viewer, and the other half of a full face. This possibly reflects Freud's writings about the double self existing in every person. [3]

David Norman, Chairman of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Department Worldwide, summarised the importance of the composition. [2]

Dora Maar Au Chat presents the artist’s most mysterious and challenging mistress regally posed three-quarter length in a large wooden chair with a small black cat perched behind her in both an amusing and menacing attitude. The faceted planes of her body and richly layered surface of brushstrokes impart a monumental and sculptural quality to this dazzling portrait. The painting is also remarkable for its brilliance of color and the complex and dense patterning of the model’s dress. The powerful figure is set in a dramatic, yet simple setting composed of a vertiginously inclined plane of wooden floorboards and shallow interior space that is arranged in a manner reminiscent of Picasso’s earliest manipulations of space in a Cubist manner.

Significance and legacy

Charles Moffett, Vice Chairman of Sotheby's, remarked on the painting's significance. [2]

Dora Maar with Cat is unquestionably one of Picasso's most extraordinary portrayals of the woman who for nearly a decade was his muse, model, and lover. An accomplished photographer who was close to key members of the Surrealist circle, Maar appealed deeply to Picasso because of her arresting and wild beauty, engaging intellect, and commitment as an artist. As Brigitte Léal has observed with regard to the portraits of Dora Maar that Picasso painted in the early 1940s, ‘...they embody the height of modern beauty as [André] Breton envisioned it, based on the principle of vital disorder, which the figure of Dora Maar, in her extreme mutability, her real, spiritual restlessness, will forever incarnate’.

Provenance

Pierre Colle of Paris acquired the painting by 1946. The painting was then obtained by Chicago collectors Leigh and Mary Block by 1947. They sold the painting in 1963. After that, the painting was never seen in public until the 21st century. [4]

During 2005 and 2006, Dora Maar au Chat, then owned by the Gidwitz family of Chicago, was shown worldwide as part of Sotheby's exhibitions in London, Hong Kong and New York. It came up for sale in an auction held at Sotheby's on 3 May 2006 in New York, making it the second-highest price ever paid for a painting at auction at the time. An anonymous Russian bidder who was present at the auction won the work with a final bid of $95,216,000, well exceeding the pre-auction estimate of $50 million. [5] [6] The identity of the bidder, who also purchased an 1883 Monet seascape and a 1978 Chagall, was a topic of much speculation. The winning buyer is listed as Georgian businessman and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pablo Picasso</span> Spanish painter and sculptor (1881–1973)

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

<i>Garçon à la pipe</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Garçon à la Pipe is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1905 when Picasso was 24 years old, during his Rose Period, soon after he settled in the Montmartre area of Paris. The painting depicts a Parisian adolescent boy who holds a pipe in his left hand and wears a garland of flowers on his head, surrounded by two floral decorations. The subject was a local boy named "P’tit Louis" who died at a young age. The painting is listed as one of the most expensive paintings, after being sold at Sotheby's auction for $104 million on 5 May 2004. It is currently the fifth highest selling painting by Picasso.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dora Maar</span> French artist and partner of Pablo Picasso (1907–1997)

Henriette Theodora Markovitch, known as Dora Maar, was a French photographer, painter, and poet. A romantic partner of Pablo Picasso, Maar was depicted in a number of Picasso's paintings, including his Portrait of Dora Maar and Dora Maar au Chat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie-Thérèse Walter</span> Lover of Pablo Picasso (1909–1977)

Marie-Thérèse Walter was a French model and lover of Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935 and the mother of their daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Their relationship began when she was seventeen years old; he was 45 and married to his first wife, Olga Khokhlova. It ended after Picasso moved on to his next relationship, with artist Dora Maar. Walter is known as Picasso's "golden muse" and inspired numerous artworks and sculptures that he created of her during their relationship.

<i>The Weeping Woman</i> Oil painting by Pablo Picasso

The Weeping Woman is a series of oil on canvas paintings by Pablo Picasso, the last of which was created in late 1937. The paintings depict Dora Maar, Picasso's mistress and muse. The Weeping Woman paintings were produced by Picasso in response to the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War and are closely associated with the iconography in his painting Guernica. Picasso was intrigued with the subject of the weeping woman, and revisited the theme numerous times that year. The last version, created on 26 October 1937, was the most elaborate of the series, and has been housed in the collection of the Tate Modern in London since 1987. Another Weeping Woman painting is housed at the National Gallery of Victoria and was involved in a high-profile political art theft.

<i>Woman in Hat and Fur Collar</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

The Woman in Hat and Fur Collar is a painting by Pablo Picasso executed in 1937 and exhibited at the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain.

<i>Nude, Green Leaves and Bust</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Nude, Green Leaves and Bust is a 1932 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, featuring his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter.

<i>La Lecture</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

La Lecture is a painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso completed in January 1932. The oil painting depicts Picasso's mistress and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, asleep with a book upon her lap. The painting led to the breakup of Picasso's marriage to Olga Khokhlova after she saw it at a retrospective exhibition and realised that the facial features were not her own. The painting went to auction in 1989 and in 1996, where it failed to sell. In January 2011, it was announced that La Lecture would be going to auction on 8 February. The painting, which had not been seen in Europe since the exhibition, was then displayed at Sotheby's in Paris.

<i>Tête de femme (Dora Maar)</i> Sculpture by Pablo Picasso

Tête de femme is a plaster-modelled, bronze-cast sculpture by Pablo Picasso. Dora Maar, Picasso's lover at the time, was the subject of the work which was originally conceived in 1941. Four copies of the bust were cast in the 1950s, several years after the relationship ended.

Woman in a Red Armchair is an oil on canvas painting by artist Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1929 and is housed at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. The painting was influenced by Surrealism and may be a portrait of Picasso's first wife, Olga Khokhlova, whom he married in 1918. It was vandalised while on display in 2012, but quickly restored.

<i>Woman with Flowered Hat</i> Painting by Roy Lichtenstein

Woman with Flowered Hat is a 1963 pop art painting with Magna on canvas by Roy Lichtenstein. The work is based on a Pablo Picasso portrait of Dora Maar. In May 2013, it sold for a record price for a Lichtenstein work.

<i>Au Lapin Agile</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Au Lapin Agile is a 1905 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It depicts the interior of the Lapin Agile, a famous cabaret club in the Montmartre area of Paris. The composition was produced during Picasso's Rose Period and includes a self-portrait of the artist who frequented the club in his youth. The painting is listed as one of the most expensive paintings after achieving a price of $40.7 million at Sotheby's auction on 27 November 1989. It is housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

<i>Yo, Picasso</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Yo, Picasso, is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he painted in 1901. It is a self-portrait of the artist that depicts him in his youth, aged 19. The painting was created at the beginning of Picasso's Blue Period. On 9 May 1989, the painting sold at Sotheby's, achieving a price of $47.85 million, making it one of the most expensive paintings sold up to that date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya Widmaier-Picasso</span> Daughter of Pablo Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter (1935–2022)

María de la Concepción "Maya" Widmaier-Picasso, later known as Maya Ruiz-Picasso, was the eldest daughter of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter. She devoted part of her life to the study and preservation of the legacy of her father.

<i>Portrait of Dora Maar</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Portrait of Dora Maar is a 1937 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It depicts Dora Maar,, the painter's lover, seated on a chair. It is part of the collection of the Musée Picasso, in Paris, where it is considered to be one of Picasso's masterpieces.

<i>Le Repos</i> (Picasso) Painting by Pablo Picasso

Le Repos is an oil-on-canvas painting created by Pablo Picasso in 1932. It depicts a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, the artist's lover and muse, in a sleeping pose. The painting was produced in the midst of their relationship and is a demonstration of Picasso's love for his mistress. Le Repos was one of a series of sleeping portraits of Walter that Picasso created in 1932. On 14 May 2018, the painting achieved a value of $36.9 million when it was sold at Sotheby's auction.

<i>Femme au Chien</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Femme au Chien is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he painted in 1962. It is a portrait of Picasso's second wife, Jacqueline Roque, and their dog Kaboul, an Afghan Greyhound. The painting is an illustration of the great affection that Picasso displayed for both of the subjects in the portrait and has elements of the cubist style that he pioneered. It was produced in Picasso's later years when the couple was living at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, near Mougins, France. On 14 May 2019, it was sold at Sotheby's auction for almost $55 million and is now housed in the collection of Wynn Fine Art in Florida.

<i>Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter)</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he created in 1937. It is a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso's lover and muse during this period and was created with elements of Cubism. The painting signifies a transition in their relationship by combining Walter's profile with that of Picasso's new lover, the Surrealist photographer Dora Maar, with whom he began a relationship in 1935. This portrait was produced in the same year as Guernica and The Weeping Woman, a significant phase in Picasso's artistic career. On 28 February 2018, it was sold at Sotheby's auction for £49.8 million, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold at an auction in Europe.

<i>Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom is a 1937 painting by Pablo Picasso. It hangs in the main reception area of the private member's club Annabel's in Berkeley Square in London's Mayfair district.

References

  1. Rutten, Michel (July 9, 2019). "The Surrealistic World of Dora Maar". Daily Art Magazine. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Pablo Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar Could Bring $50 Million at May 3 Sotheby's Auction". News Antique. December 17, 2006. Archived from the original on May 20, 2006. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  3. Cecilia, Lopena (April 25, 2012). "PABLO PICASSO DORA MAAR AU CHAT Oil on canvas 1941". Academia. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  4. "Pablo Picasso DORA MAAR AU CHAT Estimate 50,000,000 — 70,000,000 USD". Sotherbys. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  5. "Mystery Bidder Spends $95 Million on a Picasso", Carol Vogel, New York Times, May 4, 2006.
  6. "Pablo Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar brings $95,216,000 at Sotheby's" Archived March 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , News-Antique.com, May 4, 2006.
  7. "Bidzina Ivanishvili – a billionaire goes into politics". OBC Transeuropa. November 8, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2020.