Dora Maar

Henriette Theodora Markovitch (22 November 1907 – 16 July 1997), known as Dora Maar, was a French photographer, painter, and poet.

Maar was both a pioneering Surrealist artist and an antifascist activist.

Her revolutionary work ranged from commercial assignments in fashion and advertising to documenting social and economic struggles during the Depression, and explored evocative Surrealist themes. Maar was one of the few photographers to be included in important exhibitions of surrealist work in the 1930s in Paris, New York and London, alongside Man Ray and Salvador Dali. Her daring techniques in the darkroom explore psychology, dreams and inner states.

Maar's political activism and photographic style is widely acknowledged to have influenced Pablo Picasso's work during the period of their romantic relationship. In particular, Maar's influence can be seen in Picasso's powerful anti-war painting Guernica (1937). "She influenced Picasso to paint Guernica – he had never entered political painting before," says Amar Singh, curator of Amar Gallery in London.

Maar was depicted in a number of Picasso's paintings, including his Portrait of Dora Maar and Dora Maar au Chat. However, Maar said of the works: "All his portraits of me are lies. They're all Picassos. Not one is Dora Maar."