Who is Dora Maar in Picasso’s life?

Picasso met her at the Café Deux-Magots in 1936. On an earlier day, he had already noticed the grave, drawn face of the young woman at a nearby table, the attentive look in her light-colored eyes, sometimes disturbing in its fixity.

When Picasso saw her again in the same café in the company of Paul Eluard who knew her, the poet introduced her to Picasso.

He courted her with a drawing that made obvious his awareness of the 30 years’ difference in their ages.

Potrait of Dora Maar (1936)

Their love affair started that fall, as the Spanish Civil was escalated.

The ‘Potrait of Dora Maar’ is one of among a great many done in 1936-1937 that bespeak both youth and solemnity in haunting combination.

She was intellectual who knew and cared about art, and she could talk with him in Spanish as well as French.

Dora’s face begins to appear in Picasso’s work during the fall of 1936, and it was she who the next spring photographed Guernica in progress – an interesting echo of Matisse’s recent practice of creating a photograph record of his works.

Dora is often depicted as overcome by grief and anxiety; a characteristic image of her is Weeping Woman.
Who is Dora Maar in Picasso’s life?