On June 27 and 28, Artcurial will honor the photographic work of Dora Maar through 750 photographs divided into 400 lots: mostly unpublished and intimate photographs that trace her years spent at the side of Pablo Picasso, revealing her taste for surrealism and the avant-garde, but also for portraiture and street scenes of a social nature. An exceptional photographic treasure trove that will delight collectors around the world.

Dora Maar, unpublished
Auction. June 27 and 28, 2022, in Paris

“If Dora Maar shared nine years of her life with Picasso, she knew in a masterly way to create a personal work in total independence in a medium that Picasso has never approached, photography. As such, Dora Maar appears as one of the most original photographers of her time, a true pioneer in the mid-twentieth century.
– Bruno Jaubert, Director of Artcurial’s Impressionist & Modern department

“The rediscovery of such a substantial set of period negatives and contact prints represents a considerable contribution to our knowledge of Dora Maar’s photographic work. Some previously unpublished subjects will help fill in gaps and add new pieces to the puzzle in the analysis of this photographic production.”
– Antoine Romand, Expert

For the first time, Artcurial will present an auction dedicated to the photographic work of Dora Maar (1907-1997) on June 27 and 28 in Paris. This sale Dora Maar, unpublished, photographic collection is composed of 400 original lots that will trace the career of the artist from the late 1920s to the late 1940s. All of the photographs on offer come from Dora Maar’s estate and have been preserved until now; they are being exhibited and presented to the public for the very first time. Each lot consists of an original negative, its period contact print and its modern 40 x 30 cm. print, made exceptionally for this sale. Through her photographs, Dora Maar tackled themes that were dear to her, such as surrealism, instantaneous nude scenes, and the still lifes she used to create her surrealist collages. This collection also highlights her admiration for Pablo Picasso through portraits of the artist, mostly unknown to the general public.

Henriette Theodora Markovitch was born in 1907 in Paris, but grew up in Buenos Aires. At the end of the Roaring Twenties she returned to the French capital to study art and photography. It was at this time that she chose the pseudonym of Dora Maar. She studied at the Central Union of Decorative Arts, the School of Photography, the Julian Academy and the School of Fine Arts.
In the studio of André Lhote, she became close to the surrealist movement. There she met Henri Cartier-Bresson, Emmanuel Sougez and Brassaï and became a close friend of André Breton. A rising figure in the artistic avant-garde, she was very successful with her surrealist peers and participated in several exhibitions of the movement. In the mid-1930s, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés at the Deux Magots brasserie, Paul Éluard introduced her to Pablo Picasso. In fact, they had already crossed paths on the set of Jean Renoir’s Crime of Mr. Lange. She became his muse. From the beginning of the Spanish Civil War to the end of the Second World War, they lived side by side and influenced their respective art. Picasso will never stop painting the woman he nicknamed The Woman Who Weeps.
His work was exhibited all over the world: Paris, New York, Barcelona, Chicago… When she settled in the Luberon, she devoted herself more to painting but reserved her productions for her inner circle. 1997 marks the end of the life of the one who will have traveled and documented all the upheavals of the 20th century.