Descripción
Neither this poster nor its motif have been reproduced on other posters. On 29 August 1939, a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War, Picasso travelled to Royan in his Hispano-Suiza with Dora, his secretary Jaume Sabartés and his wife, and their dog Kasbek. At first they stayed at the Hotel Tigre. Later, Picasso also rented a studio facing the sea. It was on the third floor of a guest house called Les Voiliers, owned by Mme. Andrée Rolland, who lived with her mother on the second floor. In Royan, in the large house at Gerbier-de-Jones, Marie-Thérèse and her daughter Maya, who was already four years old, had been waiting for Picasso for several months. As was to be expected in a town as small as Royan, Picasso’s two lovers eventually met, leading to serious disputes between them and with Pablo, with consequent problems for everyone. Some claim that the Master, with his twisted, Machiavellian mind, deliberately provoked these incidents. Jacquiline Lamba, André Breton’s wife, also came to the spa with her daughter Aube. Although Pablo knew that Jacqueline was a friend of Dora, he introduced her to Marie-Thérèse so that the two girls, Maya and Aube, could play together.
The Germans took Paris on 14 June 1940 and entered Royan on 23 June. Picasso could not bear to see the Nazi flag waving a few steps from his studio and on 23 August he packed his bags and left for Paris with his paintings and brushes, never to return to Royan. Almost at the same time, Dora and Marie-Thérèse with Maya also left.
The drawing reproduced on the poster is a portrait of Dora, with certain features of Jacqueline Lamba, who bore a strong resemblance to Marie-Thérèse. In this work Picasso has used a different version of the language of the double face, shortening and defining the eyebrows, giving them a different shape, as he also did with the eyes.
