Weeping woman
(1937)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
55.2 × 46.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased by donors of The Art Foundation of Victoria, with the assistance of the Jack and Genia Liberman family, Founder Benefactor, 1986
© Sucession Picasso/Copyright Agency
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
The Weeping woman compositions of late 1937 belong to what have been termed the ‘postscripts’ of Pablo Picasso’s famous painting Guernica. The common stark motif in these disturbing images, that of a woman’s grief laid bare for public scrutiny, is derived from the figure at the far left of the Guernica mural – a woman who screams uncontrollably and attempts vainly to escape the bombing, grasping her dead child to her chest. Aspects of Picasso’s turbulent love life have also been read into Weeping woman – a complex web of relationships involving his former wife Olga Koklova and concurrent new lovers Marie- Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
IC1-1986
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Abstract Art Emotions and Mental States Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
busts (general, figures) crying (weeping) flat (form attributes) green colours grief handkerchiefs tear (secretion) women (female humans)
Movements
Cubism