"Picasso: The Artist and His Muses" June 11 to Oct. 2 at the Vancouver Art Gallery

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Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 ©Picasso Estate/SODRAC (2016)

Pablo Picasso, "Bust of a Woman (Dora Maar)," 1938

Pablo Picasso, "Bust of a Woman (Dora Maar)," 1938, oil on canvas, 18" x 15"

An exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery examines the six women most important to Pablo Picasso’s artistic development: Fernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque. Picasso: The Artist and His Muses includes photographs and biographical information that allows viewers to consider these muses not simply as objects for Picasso’s creativity but also as distinct individuals, a counter-narrative to the male gaze that dominates his art. The show features 30 paintings and 40 sketches, drawings, prints and sculptures by Picasso, who lived from 1881 to 1973, and is known for his paintings of seated women and reclining nudes.