Image: Image reproduction rights managed by Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; institutional source link provided
View source →Pablo Picasso, July 1, 1937
Medium
Drypoint, aquatint, and etching, with scraping, on copper in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 69.5 × 49.7 cm (27 3/8 × 19 5/8 in.); Sheet: 77.4 × 56.8 cm (30 1/2 × 22 3/8 in.)
Style
Wartime modernism
Decade
1930s
The official Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois record identifies Weeping Woman I as a Pablo Picasso etching, dated July 1, 1937, in Drypoint, aquatint, and etching, with scraping, on copper in black on ivory laid paper. A ferocious image of grief, Weeping Woman I is one of the most powerful works that Pablo Picasso undertook in the wake of his seminal Guernica (1937; Museo del Prado, Madrid). After completing Guernica , an expression of the horrors of war and a critique of fascist tyranny, Picasso continued to be drawn to the subject of agonized grief. Between June and December 1937, he undertook a series of drawings, paintings, and prints known as The Weeping Women , in which he focused and elaborated on two figures first presented in Guernica . The figure in this print may also represent the artist’s lover, the Surrealist photographer Dora Maar. In Weeping Woman I , Picasso drew inspiration from contemporary events and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century religious imagery. He modernized the traditional theme of the Virgin Mary lamenting the death of her son. The importance Picasso accorded this etching is suggested not only by its size—it was the largest plate he had yet attempted—but also by the energy he invested in it. He developed the finished print through seven independent states. It seems that he felt the need to work and rework this image, perhaps in an effort to exorcise the demons of war and his difficult relationship with Maar.
Weeping Woman I is grouped under Wartime Period for gallery navigation using the date published by Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. This period label provides high-level art-historical orientation and does not supersede the primary collection record. The institutional credit line is: Through prior acquisition of the Martin A. Ryerson Collection with the assistance of the Noel and Florence Rothman Family and the Margaret Fisher Endowment.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →2026 Estimated Value
Public collection / market value not asserted
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
Continue Exploring
Chosen for shared style, era, medium, subject, or date.
The Dream and Lie of Franco (Plate I)
January 8, 1937 · same style · same era
Woman with Tambourine
1939, printed 1942, published 1943 · same style · same era
Dream and Lie of Franco I: (January 8, 1937)
1937 · same style · same era
Dream and Lie of Franco II: January 9, 1937
1937 · same style · same era
Dream and Lie of Franco
1937 · same style · same era
Seated Woman (recto); Study (verso)
November 28, 1941 (recto); 1941 (verso) · same style · same era
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