What is "The Weeping Woman"?
The Weeping Woman is a painting by Pablo Picasso from 1937.
It is one of Picasso's most famous works, featuring his mistress Dora Maar, who Picasso photographed and also modeled for the painting.
The Tate Modern collection is the most famous, but the National Gallery of Victoria also has a work of the same name.
Basic Information on "The Weeping Woman
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Year: 1937
Material: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 61 cm × 50 cm
Collection: Tate Modern, London
Background of "The Weeping Woman
This work was inspired by the artist's shocking experience of the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
It was painted at the same time as "Guernica," one of the most famous paintings in the world.
In January 1937, Picasso was commissioned to create a mural for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris Exposition Universelle.
The bombing of Guernica occurred while he was working on the commissioned work.
Picasso was so shocked by the massacre that he commented to the Springfield Republican on July 18, 1937, as follows
In the painting I am working on, which I will call "Guernica," and in all my recent works of art, I express clearly my hatred of the army that plunged Spain into a sea of suffering and death."
The "Weeping Woman" was a follow-up series to "Guernica.
So many? There are more than 100 paintings in the "Weeping Woman" series.
It is said that there are more than 100 variations on the "Weeping Woman" motif.
The styles are extremely varied.
For example, there is a woman who cries so much that her eyes pop out of her head.
Next, a woman weeping with grief.
Then there is a woman clenching a handkerchief and weeping.
Or a woman crying as if she were screaming to the sky.
All of them are painted in multiple colors, such as blue, black, yellow, red, green, and orange.
In addition, some of the crying women strongly associated with Guernica were sometimes depicted in black and white.
The Development of "The Weeping Woman
During the six months after Guernica, Picasso continued to paint "The Weeping Woman" as if possessed.
Judy Freeman has said, "Picasso's motif that he could not let go of was the image of the weeping woman.
A total of 36 paintings of "The Weeping Woman," created between May and the end of October 1937, have been identified.
He continued to paint in the sky in a variety of styles.
The Weeping Woman in "Guernica
The "Weeping Woman" also appears in Picasso's masterpiece "Guernica.
Above the soldier in the lower left of Guernica, we see "a mother holding a dead child in her arms.
Although the name of this work is different, it is closely related to Tate Modern's "Weeping Woman.
The dead child seems to have white eyes, hands and feet hanging down.
The mother holding the child in her arms seems to be crying so hard that she seems to be screaming to the heavens.
The "Study for Guernica," written as a weeping woman, evokes the viewer's emotions sensitively with its protruding eyes, arrowhead-shaped nostrils, and sharply pointed tongue.
Various other "Weeping Woman" paintings are also on view.
Also read
Please also read the following articles on Picasso
10 Little-Known Secrets of Picasso
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