Marie-Thérèse Walter

Marie-Thérèse Walter
Marie-Thérèse is the model for Picasso's Le Rêve ("The Dream"), 1932.
Born	13 July 1909(1909-07-13)
Died	20 October 1977(1977-10-20) (aged 68)
Children	Maya Widmaier-Picasso born 5 September 1935 (1935-09-05) (age 76)

Marie-Thérèse Walter (July 13, 1909 – October 20, 1977) was the French mistress and model of Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935, and the mother of his daughter, Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Their relationship began when she was seventeen years old; he was 45 and still living with his first wife, Olga Khokhlova. It ended when Picasso moved on to his next mistress, artist Dora Maar.

In Picasso's paintings, Walter appears as blonde, sunny and bright, as in Le Rêve (1932), in contrast to his darker portrayal of Dora Maar, whom Picasso painted as the tortured "weeping woman".

Biography

Marie-Thérèse Walter was born in Le Perreux, France.

Early years with Picasso (1927-1935)

She first met Picasso on 8 January 1927 in front of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Author Herbert T. Schwartz dates their first meeting back to January of 1925, at Gare St-Lazare, Paris; whereas author Roy MacGregor-Hastie dates the encounter up to 8 January 1928. At the time Picasso was married to Olga Khokhlova, a Russian ballerina, with whom he had a five-year-old son. He and Walter, then seventeen years old, began a relationship which was kept secret from his wife until 1935. From 1927 onwards, Walter lived close to Picasso's family. From 1930, she stayed in a house opposite Picasso's at Rue La Boétie 44. In July 1930, he bought a castle at Boisgeloup close to Gisors in the Normandie, which he used as a studio for sculptures mainly. Marie was the unseen shadow of the family and became his model and muse for both paintings and sculptures.

Final years with Picasso (1935-1940)

In 1935, Marie became pregnant. When Picasso's wife, Olga, was informed by a friend that her husband had a longtime mistress who was expecting a child, she immediately left Picasso with their son Paulo and moved to the South of France. Picasso and Olga never divorced, because Picasso wanted to avoid the even division of property dictated by French law; instead, they lived separately until her death in 1955.

Picasso and Marie's daughter, María de la Concepción, called "Maya", was born on 5 September 1935. Marie and Maya stayed with Picasso at Juan-les-Pins in the South of France from March 25 to May 14 in 1936, and then at Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre, 25 km from Versailles, where Picasso visited on the weekends and some weekdays to play with his daughter. Maya also modelled for some of his paintings, including Maya with Doll (1938).

Marie-Thérèse became jealous when Picasso fell in love with Dora Maar, a surrealist photographer and model for Picasso, in 1935. Once, she and Maar met accidentally in Picasso's studio when he was painting Guernica. Asked about this in later life, Picasso remarked that he had been quite happy with the situation and that when they demanded that he choose between them, he told them that they would have to fight it out themselves, at which point the two women began to wrestle. Picasso described it "as one of his choicest memories."^[1]

While Picasso portrays Dora in his works of art as dark and in pain, as the "woman in tears", he painted Marie-Thérèse as just the opposite: blonde and bright.

Later years and death

In 1940, Marie and Maya moved to Paris, Boulevard Henri IV no 1, since the house at Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre was occupied during World War II.

Picasso supported Marie and Maya financially, but he never married Marie.

On 20 October 1977, four years after Picasso's death, Marie-Thérèse committed suicide by hanging herself in the garage at Juan-les-Pins, South of France.

In 2004, Maya's son and Marie-Thérèse's grandson, Olivier Widmaier Picasso, published a biography of his famous grandfather titled Picasso: The Real Family Story.

Incomplete list of portraits of Marie-Thérèse

• La Lecture (1932)
• The Dream (1932)
• Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932)
• Nude in a Black Armchair (1932)
• Woman in Hat and Fur Collar (1937)

References

1. ^ Susan Kandel, "Picasso and the Weeping Women" Frieze (June/August 1994). Retrieved June 29, 2011

• Picasso, Olivier Widmaier. PICASSO: The Real Family Story. Prestel Publ. 2004. 320 p. ISBN 3-79133-149-3 (biography)

External links

• Marie-Thérèse Walter at picasso.tamu.edu
• http://www.insecula.com/contact/A009008.html
• http://www.insecula.com/contact/A009015.html
• Picasso's 106 Million $ Muse - slideshow by The First Post