She knew he was intrigued, but the Other Wom- an never left. She’d tell herself that today was the day. Today, the Other Woman would walk out of his life. That today, she and the Other Woman will not come to verbal spats at the door of the studio. That today was the day it’ll end, and his affections will remain for Dora alone. Her today never came in the way she wanted. Pi- casso never broke off his long running affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter, her ‘Other Woman’. She tried to draw out the Other Woman, through her art, through the canvas, stretched taut to see how far it’ll go. A painting of hers, The Conversa- Picasso’s Dora Maar Portrait, 1937 tion, shows her and Walter sitting next to each oth- er, almost in mirror image. Walter looks out, pas- sive and inscrutable; Dora,with her back visible and face hidden. It was easier to draw the Other Woman at that time, than to think about how, maybe, they both felt and hurt the same way. Years later, when Picasso would go on to describe a story where they came to blows in his studio as “one of my choicest memories”, then she’ll under- stand better what it really was. It was a perverse thrill. A game, making Dora compete with the other woman for his affections. The black gloves remained locked in their show- case, but it was about time she let go. Their roman- tic liaison lasted for 9 years, finally breaking apart The Conversation- Dora Maar in 1945. Beyond the eye of the storm Rumours circulated, and she knew. Rumours about her giving up photography, of her going under- ground with her work, even rumours of her going mad and becoming a recluse. She probably knew her old lover fanned the flames for the last one, despite feeling some guilt, enough to help her buy the house she lived in. She laughed at those rumours, still a wild smirk, and went back to her own. When their relationship had fallen apart, Dora was “Untitled (Shell hand),” 1934 devastated. With the passing of her mother, the Photograph by Dora Maar devastation intensified into a breakdown, and it