In the context of Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter), analyze the Marie-Thérèse Walter of the Background.
Picasso first met 17-year-old Walter on the street outside Galeries Lafayette in 1927. She was a respectable girl who lived with her mother and sisters in Maisons-Alfort, a suburb of Paris. At the time, Picasso was aged 47 and unhappily married to Olga Khoklova, a Russian ballerina. Picasso approached Walter and asked to paint her portrait. He said, "You have an interesting face, I would like to do a portrait of you. I am Picasso". Walter had no knowledge of who Picasso was, but was flattered by his attention. Within two weeks they had begun a secret affair that was reflected by a change in Picasso's artistic approach. During this period, he created many portraits of Walter, such as Le Repos, which were characterised by sinuous curves that convey her voluptuous form and his great passion for her as his mistress and muse. For Picasso, this new romance offered a kind of rebirth in his personal life, illustrated by symbolic bowls of fruit and flowers, which contrasted with the staid portraits of his wife that he rendered in a formal, neoclassical style. Walter described their relationship, stating, "My life with him was always secret, calm and peaceful. We said nothing to anyone. We were happy like that, and we did not ask anything more." John Richardson, Picasso's friend and biographer opined that, "Picasso was more in love than he had ever been". By 1928, images produced of Picasso's wife were now characterised by tortured forms and jagged lines that display her increasing rage and aggression. In 1934 Khoklova left Picasso and moved out of their apartment following an exhibition that revealed the secret relationship in a series of nude portraits of Walter. On Christmas Eve of 1934, Walter told Picasso that she was pregnant and he promised to get a divorce from Khoklova, which was filed six months later. On 5 September 1935, Walter gave birth to a daughter, Maya, which led to Picasso creating several works depicting his new family. They remained together for over ten years but never married. In the autumn of 1937, Picasso and his family moved to Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre, but this year also marked the beginning of a new love in his life, in the person of Dora Maar.
Dora Maar Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre Le Repos Olga Khoklova Maisons-Alfort Marie-Thérèse Walter neoclassical Galeries Lafayette left Maya John Richardson