Pablo Picasso

The Weeping Woman, I is an elaboration of one of the central figures in Picasso’s

famous mural-size painting Guernica, executed some months earlier. Like the
painting, the print was created in reaction to the bombing on April 26, 1937, of
the defenseless town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The image is an
emblem of the artist’s homeland, torn apart by that conflict, and, more
universally, of the horrors of war.

The portrait also reflects Picasso’s conflicted love life, appearing to conflate the
features of two women with whom he was then involved. Dora Maar, known for
her volatile temper, is represented by the glossy black hair, tapered fingernails,
and tearful state, in which Picasso often portrayed her. Marie-Thérèse Walter is
referenced in the distinctive nose and forehead, features the artist frequently
depicted in the 1930s. The image is composed of bulbous, contorted, and
distended shapes and a veritable battlefield of tangled lines, heightening the
sense of explosive emotion. Picasso also capitalized on the potential of etching
and drypoint to create sharply incised details, such as nail-like tears and scissor-
like fingers, which reinforce the notion of pain being inflicted. He accorded great
significance to this large etching, which he developed and reworked through
seven independent stages, or states. This is the seventh and final one.

Sources:
Publication excerpt from MoMA Highlights: 375 Works from The Museum
of Modern Art, New York (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2019)
The Museum of the Art, (2020). Intaglio Moma. Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/
The Weeping Woman I (La Femme qui pleure I)
By Pablo Picasso, 1937
INTAGLIO PRINTS