WALKS OF ART
Muse

Muse

Picasso · 1935Room 9
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Picasso was an incredibly prolific artist, painting more than 50,000 artworks in his lifetime.

Much of his creativity was fuelled by his complex relationship with women.

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The Muse is typical of a series of paintings Picasso produced in the 1930s, inspired by his relationship with a young woman named Marie-Therese Walter.

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Picasso bumped into Marie-Therese in the streets of Paris.

She was 17. He was 45 and already married to Ukrainian ballerina Olga.

Picasso and Marie-Therese began a secrete relationship which sparked a surge of artistic creativity.

Picasso painted endless portraits of her.

They are all bold, creative, cheerful, full of sun and happiness - and deeply erotic.

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Picasso was an infamous womaniser.

Around 1930 he met his next muse - surrealist painter Dora Maar.

His paintings shifted to sadder and more tortured portraits - which she was apparently very unhappy about!

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Marie-Therese Walter's portraits by Picasso have become iconic.

One of these portraits recently sold for $69 million.