The Secret of Dora Maar's Notebook. The Diary of Pablo Picasso's Lover

A: Aragon. B: Breton, Brassai, Balthus ... I thoughtfully leafed through these several yellowed pages of an old notebook. K: Cocteau, Sh: Chagall ... E: Éluard ... D: Giacometti ... each time a phone number, often an address. Twenty pages that mention the greatest artists of the post-war period. Who could have known them well and closely interacted with these geniuses of the twentieth century? It took me three months to realize that I was holding Dora Maar's notebook. The very one that in 1936 in the Parisian café De Flore Paul Éluard introduced to Picasso, with whom she became a friend, model, and muse for 9 years. Picasso often created images of a sad Maar; in his work, she forever remained a crying woman. Dora Maar, a photographer, an artist who gave herself to Picasso, and then, consumed by passion, a hermit artist who devoted herself to God. For two years, the author worked on the diary, unraveling the mysteries of Picasso's muse, meticulously penetrating the essence, trying to understand the place of each genius in his mistress's life and getting closer to the secrets of the Crying Woman. Now this diary is before you. Brigitte Benkemoun - journalist and writer. She is the author of several biographical or autobiographical works: Little Girl in the Photograph, Albert the Magnificent, and The Secret of Dora Maar's Notebook. The Diary of Pablo Picasso's Lover, which received the Geneviève Moll Prize for Biography in 2019.