Marie-Thérèse Walter (13 July 1909 – 20 October 1977) was a French model and lover of Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935 and the mother of their daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso.

The relationship began after Picasso invited Walter to visit his studio on 11 January 1927, which was situated on the floor above his apartment on Rue La Boétie.

[6] In October 1932, Picasso's first major retrospective took place at the Galeries Georges Petit, which displayed numerous artworks depicting nude portraits of Walter, revealing the nature of his relationship with her.

Khokhlova had already left the family apartment on Rue La Boétie that year, but rather than moving in with Walter, Picasso rented a neighbouring house for her.

[7] When Khokhlova was informed by a friend that her husband had a longtime relationship with a woman who was expecting a child, she immediately left Picasso and moved to the South of France with their son, Paulo.

On 5 September 1935, Picasso and Walter's daughter, María de la Concepción, called "Maya", was born in Boulogne-Billancourt.

[3] Walter and Maya stayed with Picasso at Juan-les-Pins in the South of France[4] from 25 March to 14 May 1936, and then moved to Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre, 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Versailles, in autumn 1937.

[12] Several months after the birth of Maya, he began a relationship with Dora Maar, a surrealist photographer and model for Picasso, in 1936.

[13] Picasso installed Walter, her sister and mother at Villa Gerbier de Jonc in Royan, where he spent time with her on weekends away from Maar.

Asked about this in later life, Picasso allegedly remarked that he had been quite happy with the situation and that when they demanded that he choose between them, he told them that they would have to fight it out themselves, at which point the two women began to wrestle.

He said it is more likely that the event is imagined from the pictorial representation of Walter and Maar who appear as if in battle at opposite ends of the composition of Guernica.

[14] His daughter Maya later recalled unexpectedly encountering Maar on a visit to the studio with her mother: “One day we turned up and she was there, standing next to Guernica.

I started crying and said to my father, ‘I don’t want to see the dribbly lady.’ I was talking about Dora Maar, who licked her lips a lot.

His brother-in-law, who was an art dealer, took the call and Walter sold him two of Picasso's paintings to pay for his medical bills.

[7] Woman with Vase, a bronze copy of a plaster sculpture of a fertility goddess that Picasso based on Walter in 1933 was placed on the artist's tomb at the Château de Vauvenargues.

[26] She is played by Poppy Delevingne in the 2018 television series Genius, which focuses on the life and art of Pablo Picasso.