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Considered a seminal print, Weeping Woman I, also known as La Femme qui pleure, was given to the National Gallery by the government, who received it from the estate of Joanna Drew "as part of the in lieu of inheritance tax scheme, where works of art can be given to the state instead of paying tax," the Herald notes.

Drew was the director of the Hayward Gallery and a major figure on the arts scene before her death.

The print was a study for Guernica, the painting Picasso made after the Germans bombed that city in April of 1937, "partly as practice to see what it would take to destroy an entire town," says the Herald.

The figure in the print is believed to be modeled on Dora Maar, who was then Picasso's mistress. The Scotsman ran a piece today about Maar, a photographer and artist who met Picasso in a café in Paris in 1936.

The Scotsman quotes Francoise Gilot, another of Picasso's mistresses, describing the first time Picasso met Maar.

"Dora Maar wore black gloves with little roses. She took off her gloves and took a long, pointed knife that she stabbed into the table between her spread fingers," Gilot said.

"From time to time, she missed the mark by a fraction of a millimeter, and her hand was covered in blood. Picasso was fascinated. He asked Dora to give him her gloves, and he saved them under glass."

FOR FULL STORY CLICK:

The Herald: "Taxing times: capital gallery gifted rare Picasso Guernica print"

Scotsman: "Tortured Soul Who Helped Artist Produce Some of His Greatest Work"
Image Courtesy of National Galleries of Scotland.