Dora Maar

Exhibited by Galerie Boquet

Material Oil on canvas

Dimensions 162 x 114 cm

Place of Creation France

Status Vetted

About the Work

Painted during the war years, this brown-toned painting evokes the austerity of the Occupation era. With its photographic gaze, the painting reveals a major evolution in Dora Maar’s artistic style. While it relates to the still lifes Picasso was creating at the same time, this work is marked by striking plastic sobriety and showcases Dora Maar’s original, meditative sensitivity.

The artist’s studio serves as the setting for this new painterly identity. In 1944, photographer Brassaï captured Dora Maar in her studio on Rue de Savoie, where this painting can be seen on an easel—a work she would keep for the rest of her life.

This work has been exhibited at the retrospective exhibition 'Dora Maar', held in Centre Pompidou, Paris (5 June - 29 July 2019) and Tate Modern, London (19 November 2019 - 15 March 2020).

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Provenance

- Dora Maar Estate Sale, Maison de la Chimie, Paris, Piasa, 26 November 1998
- Private collection, France
- Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Pestel-Debord, 27 June 2012, lot 86
- Private collection, France (acquired at the above sale)

Literature

- Dora Maar, exh. catalogue, 2019, under the direction of Damarice Amao, Amanda Maddox, Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, p. 204, ill. p. 169
- Marie-Laure de Noailles, peintre. Conversations, exh. catalogue, 2024, ed. Villa Noailles, Hyères, under the direction of Johan Fleury de Witte, ill. p. 45