Pablo Picasso- Weeping Woman

An iconic artist at his most piercing.

Picasso created close to sixty pictures of weeping women between January and November 1937 - the majority of which were modelled on Dora Maar; his mistress and Muse of the time.

But this particular version (which happens to be one of the last he painted that year) is not only among the most unforgettable of this little series . . . but, more so, it is surely one of the standout pieces in Picasso’s entire career.

Weeping woman - 1937 (Tate Collection, London - Not currently on display)

Painted around the same time as Picasso was also working on Guernica, his other great tragic masterpiece - The Weeping Woman is charged with all the the same harrowing emotion of that larger work; only, this time, it is brought to life in vivid colour, with our attention focused solely in this solitary figure.

And while Guernica is like watching a tragedy from afar, and intended as a kind of “universal” symbol of suffering . . . here, the atmosphere is much more personal.

In fact, it is as if we are zooming in uncomfortably close to a very singular kind of agony.

So, while this image may not be the easiest to spend time with (in fact it can feel almost unviewable at times - even to fans of Picasso’s art!) . . . I still encourage you all to linger a little longer with this picture today.

And instead of spending too much time about Picasso’s own intention here (i.e whether he really did paint it as a commentary on grief, or if he had rather more sinister intentions instead in terms of wanting to humiliate poor Dora) . . . perhaps we can engage best simply by empathizing with this figure.

Look at the fear in those eyes.

Look at the severity of the tears being wept - falling like shards of glass.

Look at the way this woman seems to gnaw on her own fingers - and these sharp edges to her features which seem once to have been rounded.

It is like her suffering has completely “become her”. And in that sense, she represents something which I’m sure all of us can relate to feeling at some point in our own lives too.

Thus, whether you see this painting as the work of a master or a madman - one thing is for sure; it is an image which truly echoes in our memory . . . even if only after a single viewing.

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