Dora Maar
Dora Maar photographed Guernica in progress in this studio from 11 May to 4 June 1937, state by state — the reason it is the most closely documented major painting ever made.
7 rue des Grands-Augustins
Still standing
Outside only
Someone else
Pablo Picasso's Paris studio from the winter of 1936 until 1955, and the room in which Guernica was painted between 1 May and 4 June 1937. Dora Maar photographed the picture at every stage of its making here — the only complete photographic record of a major painting being built.
- 7 rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris
- Picasso's studio from the end of 1936 to 1955
The place, briefly
Pablo Picasso took a studio at 7 rue des Grands-Augustins in the winter of 1936, in a seventeenth-century building on the left bank a few streets from the Seine. He kept it until 1955.
In January 1937 the Spanish Republican government commissioned him to make a work for its pavilion at the Paris World's Fair. He had no subject and made little progress for months. Then on 26 April the Basque town of Guernica was bombed by German and Italian aircraft flying for the Nationalists, and the reports reached Paris within days.
He began on 1 May and finished on 4 June 1937. The canvas is nearly eight metres wide and it was painted in this room — a fact worth holding onto when you stand on the street, because the scale of the thing against the scale of a Paris apartment building is the first surprise of the story.
Dora Maar, a photographer and Picasso's partner at the time, photographed the painting in progress from 11 May to 4 June. That record is why Guernica is the most closely documented major painting ever made: you can watch it change state by state, see figures added and painted out, and see the composition arrive rather than appear. Nothing comparable exists for any other work of that importance.
The building held more than the painting. The studio became a meeting place through the Occupation, when Picasso stayed in Paris and went on working while his art was officially condemned.
It is private and there is nothing to enter. But the street is short and quiet and the building is unmistakable, and the Musée national Picasso in the Marais is the place to go afterwards.
Key facts
- From the winter of 1936 until 1955
- Guernica, between 1 May and 4 June 1937
- A commission for the Spanish Republic's pavilion at the 1937 Paris World's Fair
- The bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937
- Nearly eight metres wide — painted in this building
- Photographed the painting in progress from 11 May to 4 June 1937
- It is the most closely documented major painting ever made
- Private building, exterior only
Timeline
Picasso takes the studio at 7 rue des Grands-Augustins.
The Spanish Republic commissions a work for its pavilion at the Paris World's Fair.
Guernica is bombed; reports reach Paris within days.
Picasso paints Guernica in the studio.
Dora Maar photographs the painting at every stage.
Picasso gives up the studio.
On the map
Questions before you go
Where was Guernica painted?
At 7 rue des Grands-Augustins in the 6th arrondissement, Picasso's Paris studio from the winter of 1936 to 1955. He painted it between 1 May and 4 June 1937 — a canvas nearly eight metres wide, made inside an ordinary Paris building.
Why did Picasso paint Guernica?
The Spanish Republican government commissioned a work for its pavilion at the 1937 Paris World's Fair. He had no subject for months. On 26 April 1937 the Basque town of Guernica was bombed by German and Italian aircraft flying for the Nationalists; he started painting on 1 May.
Who photographed Guernica being painted?
Dora Maar, a photographer and Picasso's partner at the time, who recorded the canvas from 11 May to 4 June 1937. It is the reason Guernica is the most closely documented major painting ever made — you can watch figures added and painted out, and see the composition arrive rather than simply appear.
Can you visit the studio?
No — it is a private building with nothing to see inside. The street is worth walking, and the Musée national Picasso in the Marais is where to go afterwards.
People who knew this place
Pablo Picasso
Picasso's Paris studio from the winter of 1936 until 1955. He painted Guernica here between 1 May and 4 June 1937, on a canvas nearly eight metres wide, after the bombing of the town on 26 April; Dora Maar photographed it at every stage from 11 May.
Within walking distance
3 Rue des Grands-Augustins
Robert and Sonia Delaunay's apartment and studio from 1910 to 1935 — where La Prose du Transsibérien took its colors, and whose key Blaise Cendrars held while the couple waited out the First World War abroad.
Visit the place
4 Rue de Savoie
The attic room where Blaise Cendrars settled in 1912, back from New York — his home, the address of the one-man publishing house that issued La Prose du Transsibérien, and the room he came back to after losing his arm in the war.
Visit the place
Daniel Halévy's Salon (39 Quai de l'Horloge)
Daniel Halévy's literary salon on the Île de la Cité, where D. H. Lawrence went to a tea in March 1929 and met François Mauriac. It produced the only line about Paris that anyone quotes him on.
Visit the placeBoulevard Saint-Michel
The boulevard that runs from the Seine up past the Sorbonne to the Luxembourg — the main axis of the Latin Quarter, cut through by Haussmann and known for a century as the Boul'Mich. In Down and Out in Paris and London it is where a pair of Orwell's fellow lodgers ran one of the neatest frauds in the book.
Visit the placeThe Friday Letter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.