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Dora Maar au Chat is one of the largest portraits of the subject by Picasso. It is an oil on canvas painting measuring 128.3 cm x 95.3 cm and is signed by the artist on the lower left corner. As Picasso's mistress and main model, Dora Maar was the artist's main source of inspiration and his artistic companion. The painting was created in 1941 during the midst of their tempestuous relationship.
The painting is a rare, three-quarter length portrait of Maar, who is sitting in an armchair. Picasso used a vibrant palette to depict Maar's clothing and gave particular attention to details of the angles of the chair and the pattern on the dress. Maar's hat is particularly significant, as it signifies her involvement in the Surrealist movement. Like a crown on her head, the hat is ornate, embellished with colourful feathers and red trim. The presence of the subject is pronounced, reflecting the way a queen would sit on her throne.In this painting, Picasso aims to depict not only Dora's beauty, but also her temperament. He once described her as an "Afghan cat" in reference to her personality. The presence of the cat on her shoulder offers special significance, as it reflects the traditional pairing of cats and women in art that was used to suggest female cunning and sexual aggression. This theme is particularly noticeable in the way that the artist depicted Maar's long manicured fingernails, which in Picasso's portrait have been rendered as long talons.Picasso depicted Maar's portrait in the Cubist style. He used faceted planes and blocks of colour to sculpt her body. The outlines of shapes in the body are accentuated in black, while Maar's face is sculpted in white. The composition is a construction of shapes with vertically inclined planes that contrast with the lines of the wooden floor in the background. Maar's face is presented from two angles, one half in profile with the eye looking straight at the viewer, and the other half of a full face. This possibly reflects Freud's writings about the double self existing in every person.
David Norman, Chairman of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Department Worldwide, summarised the importance of the composition.Dora Maar Au Chat presents the artist’s most mysterious and challenging mistress regally posed three-quarter length in a large wooden chair with a small black cat perched behind her in both an amusing and menacing attitude. The faceted planes of her body and richly layered surface of brushstrokes impart a monumental and sculptural quality to this dazzling portrait. The painting is also remarkable for its brilliance of color and the complex and dense patterning of the model’s dress. The powerful figure is set in a dramatic, yet simple setting composed of a vertiginously inclined plane of wooden floorboards and shallow interior space that is arranged in a manner reminiscent of Picasso’s earliest manipulations of space in a Cubist manner.
Freud's Dora Maar Sotheby's Surrealist movement