picasso oil paintings - does anyone know who is the woman in The Dream oil painting?

Question

I looked at this painting by picasso called "The Dream" -
http://www.overstockart.com/pipadr.html
I think it is beautiful but does anyone know who is the woman in the painting?
Picasso painted oil paintings of a lot of women like Dora Maar and others which are amazing, but I always wondered about the Dream...
See this gallery for some really nice ones:
http://www.overstockart.com/picrep.html

Answer 1

It was his mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter. Here are some details of her life:
Marie-Thérèse Walter (born on July 13, 1909, in Le Perreux, France, died on October 20, 1977, in Juan-Le-Pins, France). She was a love and muse of Picasso, and mother of his daughter Maya.

She first met Picasso on 8th of January 1927 in front of the Galleries La Fayette, Paris (author Herbert T. Schwartz dates the first meeting back to January, 1925, at Gare St-Lazare, Paris, author Roy MacGregor-Hastie dates the first meeting up to 8th of January 1928). From 1927 onwards Marie-Thérèse Walter stayed close to Picasso's family without his wife, Olga Khokhlova, realizing what was occurring. She even became the nurse of Olga and Picasso's son Paulo. From 1930 she stayed in a house opposite to Picasso's at Rue La Boétie 44. In July 1930, Picasso bought a castle at Boisgeloup close to Gisors in the Normandie, which he used as studio for sculptures mainly. Marie was the unseen shadow of the family and became his model and muse for both paintings and sculptures.

For some years their love affair was kept secret until Olga was told of Marie's pregnancy by a friend. Olga and Paolo immediately moved to the South of France. Picasso's and Marie's daughter Maria de la Concepcion (Maya) was born on September 5, 1935. Picasso and Olga never were divorced, because Picasso wanted to avoid the even division of property dictated by French law, but they lived separately until Olga died in 1955. Marie stayed together with Picasso at Juan-Le-Pins in South of France from March 25 to May 14 in 1936, and then at Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre, 25 km from Versailles, where Picasso visited them during the weekends and on some days of the week to play with his daughter. Maya also became model for some of his paintings.

Marie-Thérèse became jealous when Picasso started to fall in love with Dora Maar in 1936. Once both ladies met accidentally in Picasso' studio (when he was painting Guernica). Picasso asked them, 'why don't you fight for me'? Indeed they started wrestling, the artist being amused.

While Dora is painted dark and in pain as "Woman in Tears", Marie-Thérèse is blonde and bright on Picasso's works of art, just the opposite.

In 1940, Marie and Maya moved to Paris, Boulevard Henri IV no 1, since the house at Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre was occupied during World War II.

Picasso supported Marie and Maya financially, but he never married Marie.

On October 20, 1977, four years after Picasso's death, Marie-Thérèse committed suicide by hanging herself in the garage at Juan-les-Pins, South of France.