Pablo Picasso
Portrait of Marie-Therese Walter, 1937
Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm
Musee Picasso, Paris

Marie-Therese Walter was Picasso’s mistress and muse between 1927 and 1939. At the time Picasso met her, she was 17 and he was already married to Olga Khokhlova, a Russian dancer.

As French law required an even settlement of property in the case of divorce (and Picasso didn’t want to share his wealth), Picasso and Khokhlova remained legally married until Khokhlova’s death in 1955.

Picasso carried on a long-standing affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter and fathered a daughter, Maia.

Marie-Thérèse lived in the vain hope that Picasso would one day marry her, but hanged herself four years after Picasso’s death.