Scotland's National Gallery of Modern Art is unveiling the famed Pablo Picasso etching Weeping Woman I on Wednesday.

Dating from 1937, the etching is one of the artist's final renderings of the tortured woman, who Picasso once said was modelled on Argentine surrealist artist and photographer Dora Maar, who was one of his mistresses for nine years.

The cubist master produced the image – a profile of a woman's face contorted with pain – in a series of preparatory drawings and paintings for his massive mural Guernica, a response to the German bombing of the Spanish town during Spain's Civil War. However, the image ultimately did not appear in the finished mural.

Picasso's 1937 etching 'Weeping Woman I' (Image courtesy National Galleries of Scotland)

"As well as providing a valuable insight into one of Picasso's most famous paintings, the etching is an important piece of modern European history," Culture Minister Patricia Ferguson said in a statement.

"I would urge both those living in Scotland and those visiting from overseas to experience it for themselves."

Only 15 prints were made from the etching and Picasso kept 10 of them for himself.

A painted version of Picasso's 'Weeping Woman' is on display at the Tate Modern in London. (Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)

The British government accepted Weeping Woman I – valued at more than $1.7 million – in lieu of an inheritance tax from the estate of arts administrator Joanna Drew, who died in 2003. The work was then allocated to the Edinburgh gallery.

A painted version of Weeping Woman is displayed at the Tate Modern in London. Picasso's friend and biographer Roland Penrose purchased both the painting and the etching in 1937. He later gave the etching to Drew, a well-known gallery director and considered one of the most influential figures in the British arts scene.