The image obsessed Picasso, with the artist producing thirty six works on the subject between May and October 1937. In all, Picasso depicts his muse Dora Maar in various states of anguish, in the present etching she is seen in a silent scream, weeping for the destruction of her country and lives lost.

Picasso created La femme qui pleure I in July 1937 at Roger Lacourière’s studio in Paris. He made seven states of the print although only editioned two, the third and the seventh, with the present work coming from the third. The remaining five states were produced as artist proofs in an editions of one or two, and now largely kept at Musée Picasso in Paris. A total of forty two prints were created across all seven states, with at least nineteen in museum collections.

A number of museums have editions of the third state in their collections including MoMA, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid and Musée Picasso, Paris. Picasso or his heirs kept edition numbers eight to fifteen of the third state in their private collection for many years. This current etching was purchased from the Estate and eventually entered the collection of Alan and Marianne Schwartz in the 1980s. The Schwartzs’ had one of the largest private holdings of graphic art in the US, with the Detroit Insitute of Arts dedicating an exhibition to their collection in 1990.