Explores the relationship between Picasso and Dora Maar
Written in the first person narrative allowing Dora to tell her story.
It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a read with upsetting scenes depicting their toxic and destructive nine year relationship
A well researched historical novel of an extraordinary woman
Thanks @louisatreger @bloomsburypublishing & @netgalley for the interesting historical read

The Paris Muse by Louise Treger

Treger’s latest novel concerns the life, or more accurately the love, of Dora Maar - a photographer and painter who lived in Paris for most of her life and most notably, during the German occupation in WWII. Born Henrietta Theodora Markovitch in 1907, she was known as a surrealist photographer exhibiting alongside Dali and other notable surrealists. She used her photographic art to better represent life through links with ideas, politics and philosophy rather than slavishly photographing what was naturally there. She was exhibited in the Surrealist Exposition in Paris and the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936. In the same year she was exhibited at MOMA in NYC. He first encountered Picasso while taking photos at a film set in 1935, but they were not introduced until a few days later when Paul Elduard introduced them at Cafe des Deux Magots. They met in quite a dramatic way that showed her intent to catch his eye. She sat alone and using a pen knife she drove the blade between her splayed fingers and where she missed blood stained the gloves she wore. The fact that Picasso kept these gloves and packed them away with his treasured mementoes is a metaphor for their entire relationship - he fed from her emotions.

The author allows Dora to tell her own story and we are inside her mind at all times. We could say this is only her viewpoint of their relationship, but in a world where she is most known through her relationship with a man instead of her own work, Treger is simply redressing the balance. Also you’d have to be utterly blind to think there’s any other way of looking at his treatment of her and the other women he was involved with. But the nine years they were together, she was subjected to mental and psychological abuse. She was underestimated as an influence on his work, particularly Guernica and his politics. I feel on reading the book that he was drawn to what he saw as her masochism and drew on the pain he caused her both for his personal satisfaction and his art. He comes across as a narcissist; constantly told he was a genius he believes everything revolves around his needs and his freedom to work. This is seen in The Weeping Woman series of paintings where she’s depicted as a woman who is constantly tortured and distressed.

We can see how their affair had a distinct honeymoon period. The mistake she made was thinking this would be a template for the rest of their affair. She knew he had a wife, Olga, who’d had a nervous breakdown. There was also Marie Therese, who was his mistress and had his son Paulo. It seems Picasso never turned down an offer, having liaisons with many of their friends and group sexual experiences when they were on holiday in the South of France. These encounters caused Dora extreme emotional distress and being in her head was a painful experience. I desperately wanted Dora to walk away, but she wasnt being true to herself in accepting her behaviour. It felt like their relationship moved in a toxic pattern of infidelity, followed by distress and recrimination. The more distressed she became, Picasso would withdraw, telling her theyd made a bargain, that she was free to leave and that her distress was preventing him from working. Consequently we can see her feelings discounted. He gaslights her by saying she doesn’t have to feel the way she does; her feelings were always the problem, never his behaviour. In one scene in the book Dora suspects her mother is unwell after a dropped phone call but it’s after curfew during the German occupation an they can’t leave the house. Although Dora has paper saying she’s Catholic and Aryan, they won’t save her if she’s found out in the middle of the night. I found Picasso terribly cold towards her when they find her mother dead the next day, he doesn’t touch her and seemed more fascinated rigor mortis and the unearthly sheen of her skin, than comforting Dora. There were times when I felt he was doing things to keep Dora in her place, but there were other times when he seemed genuinely unmoved. It was as if once he looked at something with his artist’s eye it became an object.

It was no surprise when Dora’s mental health began to decline and being in that space with her felt suffocating and scary. I loved the way the author had missing sections in the text to signify time Dora has lost and where others have to step in. Treger represents Dora’s declining mental health as a direct product of Picasso’s actions. It’s as if he slowly takes her apart until her mind resembles one of his portraits, distorted and unnatural. Dora is a square trying to fit into a round hole. She is in love with Picasso and craves a life with him based on friendship, passion and fidelity. Picasso wants to have everything Dora is offering, but without the fidelity. He can’t understand why she is unhappy at his visits to Marie Therese, because when he’s with Dora he is wholly with her. His assertion that they should both be free almost sounds plausible until you realise that he holds all the power: he sees Dora when it suits him not her; he reserves the right to sleep with her friends even when she’s there; he also gets to decide when she should return to her apartment and let him work. I almost wanted him to have a taste of his own medicine. I wanted Dora to turn him away when she’s working or sleep with one of her male friends while they were on holiday, but she doesn’t get to dictate in the same way. That’s when you realise that his call for freedom in their relationship, means his freedom. I felt sad for Dora, possibly influenced by some of my own experiences. She seemed like a smaller woman at the end with none of her original vitality and flamboyance. I’m so glad to know that her art lives on and is still exhibited as part of the surrealist canon.

The Paris Muse is a fictional story by the author, although some of the characters were real living people once upon a time.

Henriette Theodora Markovitch, subsequently known as Dora Maar was one of Pablo Picasso’s lovers. This book tells the story from her point of view, of how things could possibly have happened. She was Picasso’s muse.
History has a habit of telling stories of famous men, but not so much the women behind them with their own talents and presence, so it’s always good to see further perspectives.

I totally enjoyed reading this book and found it so hard to put down. I really emotionally felt for Dora in the book, I can’t believe how much she accepted and endured, and so wished she’d had a stronger female back up.
I don’t know much about the Arts although I am aware of Picasso’s work.
I was not aware of Dora Maar, but have looked up some of the characters in the book including her to find out more about them.
A book I won’t forget.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for an advanced e-book copy. Opinions about the book are entirely my own.

I enjoyed this story, knowing a little about Dora already. Well written with good details. Such a sad story though.

Once again Louisa Treger has triumphed in bringing the far too often hidden stories of women in history to light. Picasso and the Surrealist artists are world famous, but what about the women in their lives? Their muses, often strong talented artists in their own rights, are far too often brushed over. In The Paris Muse, Louisa tells the story of Dora Maar, Picasso’s muse and lover who inspired so much of his famous work. From her childhood in Argentina with parents who had a fraught relationship, to a tempestuous love affair with Georges Bataille, to her turbulent relationship with Picasso, we are drawn into Dora’s story. I found myself totally immersed in her and felt so deeply for her throughout. So much suffering and sadness in amongst the deep love she had for Picasso; so all encompassing that she knew she shouldn’t stay but couldn’t leave; and ultimately the madness he inflicted upon her. As a student I spent my year abroad in Royan. How I wish I’d known this story then. I feel true inspired to find out more about Dora’s photography and painting. Wonderfully evocative, highly emotional and superbly executed!
It’s been an absolute pleasure to have been given an early opportunity to read this book by Louisa. Many thanks to the publisher too.

Historical fiction, based on the relationship between Dora Maar and Pablo Picasso.

It's been a few weeks since I finished this novel, and it's really stayed with me. I knew little about Picasso's personal life, and even less about Dora Maar, and so this was a fascinating read. It touches briefly on Dora's childhood, and an early sadistic relationship with Georges Bataille. But the biggest influence on her life was Picasso, and it was shocking to discover how he was involved in multiple relationships, selfishly taking what he needed from each woman before discarding them.

Dora was an artist in her own right, and it was also fascinating to learn about her pioneering work in photography, and her shift to painting, as well as her influence on Picasso's work.

I hugely enjoyed this, and would definitely recommend The Paris Muse.

In this supposedly 'fictional retelling' of Dora Maar's relationship with Pablo Picasso there doesn't appear to be much fiction (besides some made up dialogue, perhaps). It reads more like a biography. This is an observation, not a criticism per se. I'm just a little confused about the author's precise intent, since her narrative 'feels' like neither one thing or the other. That said, it reads well enough in terms of writing quality and style but, in this reader's mind at least, there is an uneasiness about what to believe and may or may not be based on Treger's research and what is downright invention.

Many thanks to the publishers and to Netgalley for the ARC.

I was kindly gifted a copy of this novel via Netgalley thanks to the author herself.

I loved her previous book Madwoman so I was looking forward to seeing what Louisa had conjured up next.

This is a historical novel like no other.

Based on yet another remarkable woman in history, I found it absolutely fascinating.

Mixed in with the events of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, we follow Dora Maar as she navigates her way through a truly turbulent journey of love and life.

Dora's not so typical romance with Pablo Picasso was one that I found to be both passionate and disturbing all at the same time. This was a man that commanded attention and knew just how to manipulate both men and women to get what he wanted.

There were times throughout this tale that I simply wanted to shake Dora and make her see sense.

Her relationship with Pablo was volatile but strangely also necessary at times.

Emotional.

It was clear throughout that Dora was on a long journey of self discovery both for herself personally and for her career. If mental health was recognised back then like it is now then I'm sure Dora's path would have been completely different.

An intense read, I'm glad yet another woman in history that was overshadowed by a man gets another chance to be seen.