How Picasso Broke His Beautiful Mistress’s Heart and Ruined Her Career
Dora Maar was neither happy nor recognized
Our past is full of people who never got into textbooks; of thousands killed in battles but we remember the generals who led them. Of millions who perished from hunger while their kings ate cookies in court. And of artists who died unknown because they didn’t play their cards right.
All of those people make fragments of the past like pieces of a gigantic cubist painting. One of them was Dora Maar (1907–1997).
She was a talented photographer, painter, and poetess. But most of us have never heard of her art thanks to Picasso.
Dora Maar was destined to be misunderstood
Her parents were a well-known Croatian architect Josip Marković (1874–1969) and Catholic Frenchwoman Louise-Julie Voisin.
Born as Henriette Theodora Markovitch in Tours (France), Dora spent her childhood in Buenos Aires where her father built office buildings, embassies, and monuments. Despite his great creativity, the architect didn’t achieve financial success, so in 1926 the family came back to France. Dora was 19.
Moving around from one continent to another made Theodora torn forever. Although she was both…
