Pablo Picasso is no master of the original title.

Woman with a Book should not be confused with his 1909 painting Woman with a Book, his other work Seated Woman with a Book from 1910, or with Fernand Léger’s painting Woman with a Book. And you don’t have to look much further to see that “Woman with __” became a kind of plug and chug titling system for Picasso over the years, including works like Woman with Gloves, and Weeping Woman with Handkerchief.

Luckily, his similar titles yield far from similar results. In this painting specifically, he was inspired by a work by the Neoclassical master Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Picasso first encountered Ingres’ portrait Madame Moitessier in 1921, and it must have really sunk in, because this work is quite imitative in the positioning. Although, of course, Picasso made it his own with lots of bizarre modifications. He rested the model’s head on her hand and cleverly replaced the fan with the opened pages of a book.

The artist Françoise Gilot, Picasso’s first wife, wrote in her memoir Life with Picasso of the horrific way Picasso treated people, especially women . Picasso, in his rage, abuse, and misogyny affected the lives of many of the people around him, especially women, and the woman depicted here, Marie-Thérèse Walter, is no exception. 

This portrait is one of many paintings and sculptures that Picasso did of his lover Walter. Walter and Picasso began to have a relationship after they met on the street in Paris, when she was seventeen and he was forty-six. When he met her, he immediately asked if he could paint her. Picasso being married, he saw Walter on the side, and he even bought a home outside Paris, called Boisgeloup, where Walter would ride her bike to come stay with him. They had a child together, and Picasso promised to marry her many times, but, surprise surprise, he never actually came through. Walter would sadly spend much of her life in and out of clinics and living mostly with her mother. Despite the way Picasso treated her, she was notably kind, and even saved Picasso’s grandson by calling in a helicopter for him when he swallowed bleach after being told he couldn’t go to Picasso’s funeral. After Picasso died at 91, a statue of Walter holding a lamp was placed over his grave. Tragically, Walter hung herself in 1977, four years after Picasso died. 

Regarding the reflection in the mirror, there’s much debate as to whom it may be...The guesses range from the boring and obvious (it’s her reflection), to the slightly more interesting (it's Picasso himself), and to the much more interesting (it's lover who is not Picasso). For Walter's sake, we hope it's the third option.