Dora Maar House: The Residence

History of the Dora Maar House Located in one of the most beautiful regions of Southern France, about 40 km southeast of Avignon, the Dora Maar House in Ménerbes is a classic 18th century town house once occupied by Général Baron Robert, one of Napoleon’s well-decorated generals in the Republican Army. In 1944 Pablo Picasso purchased the four-story mansion for Dora Maar, an artist and surrealist photographer who was his companion and muse in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Dora Maar owned the house until her death in 1997, when a resident of both Ménerbes, France, and Houston, Texas, purchased the house and began a five-year rehabilitation project to update the spacious residence and gardens. The new owner’s vision was to create a place for scholars, artists, and writers, to use as a retreat where they could work undisturbed on their art, research or writing for periods ranging from one to three months. In 2006, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston was asked to direct this project, now called The Brown Foundation Fellows Program at the Dora Maar House. Here, outstanding mid-career professionals are offered fellowships that enable them to live in the Dora Maar House in the village of Ménerbes and to focus on the creative aspects of their work. The Dora Maar House has four private bedrooms, each with a private bath, three studies for writers and scholars, a studio for artists, and a piano. There are shared kitchen, library, living and dining rooms, along with two beautiful gardens. The house is equipped with high-speed wireless internet, printer, fax, and laptops for the fellows’ convenience.

The Dora Maar House Garden at the Dora Maar House