An outstanding artist, a great master periodically needs additional energy and fresh ideas. The source of such energy is often women. Dora Maar was also an artist. However, she was too close to a ruthless genius.
Childhood and youth
A true artist continues to work regardless of the events that take place outside the walls of the workshop. His task is to capture the moment in which he is. According to modern experts, Dora Maar was an original and talented artist. In addition to this, she was professionally engaged in art photography. Sensual and despising conventions, Dora was a prominent star in Parisian artistic bohemia. Her black as the wing of a raven, hair and malachite green eyes acted fascinatingly on men.
The artist, whose real name is Theodora Markovich, was born on November 22, 1907 in a family of creative intelligentsia. Parents at that time lived in the French city of Tours. His father, a native of Croatia, was engaged in architectural design. Mother, a native Frenchwoman, led a secular life. Three years later, the family moved to distant Buenos Aires, his father got a decent job. Already in school years, the girl was fluent in Spanish, French and English. When Dore turned seventeen, she returned to Paris to receive a specialized education at the Academy of Fine Arts.
In the shadow of a genius
Dora completed a complete training in photography techniques. In parallel with this, she made close ties with artists who worked in the genre of surrealism. This hobby immediately affected the appearance of a woman photographer and her behavior. Maar dressed extravagantly and elegantly. She loved to wear wide-brimmed hats and long gloves. I smoked cigarettes with a long mouthpiece and painted pointed nails in dark red. This is exactly what the famous artist Pablo Picasso saw Dora. After the first meeting in the cafe “Two Macaques”, they went to Dora’s workshop, where she took several pictures of her future lover.
It is important to note that by this time Picasso was more than six months in a creative stupor. When they met, the famous master was only 55, and the girl photographer was 29 years old. Dora, with her energy and non-standard behavior, managed to rekindle the artist’s attraction to creativity. In the mid-thirties, Picasso creates his best picture "Guernica". The whole process of creating Maar is fixed on film. After some time, the artist paints a picture called "Portrait of Dora Maar with a cat."
