Christie’s to offer a work “ Marie-Thérèse ” by Picasso for 55 million dollars

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Christie’s will offer a large painting by Pablo Picasso of Marie-Thérèse executed in 1932 during its 20th century evening sale in May for an estimate of around $ 55 million.

Woman seated near a window (Marie-Thérèse) was part of a series of pioneering portraits that Picasso painted of his muse during a year in which he had already achieved comfort and fame, but sought to show his continued relevance as an artist, according to the guide to the Tate Modern on “Picasso 1932”, a show dedicated to this critical period in Picasso’s life. The 2017-18 exhibition arrived at the Tate in London after being shown at the Picasso Museum in Paris.

Woman seated near a window (Marie-Thérèse), which was among the paintings included in the exhibition, is shipped by an anonymous private collector who purchased the work at a Sotheby’s sale in London in 2013 for around $ 45 million, with fees.

The current estimate reflects the previous price, Picasso’s job market, and the evolution of the masterpiece market, says Vanessa Fusco, co-director of Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sales.

This market “has grown exponentially since 2013,” says Fusco. “Many buyers are competing for top quality work.”

The year 1932 begins shortly after Picasso turned 50, and as he “led a beautiful bourgeois life,” says Fusco, adding that there were many questions about what the artist would do next. At the time, he was married to Russian ballerina Olga Khoklova, had a son, and his mistress was 22-year-old Maria Theresa.

Unlike the earlier paintings by Marie-Thérèse created in 1932, Woman sitting by a window shows Picasso’s muse “standing, alert” and with a “very burning gaze,” says Fusco. And, “she is fully clothed.”

In previous works, she is often depicted lying down, naked and in her own world. “Her eyes are often closed and she’s really more of an object to watch,” says Fusco.

The work also represents a confluence of Picasso’s representations of his lover in painting and sculpture, on which he had focused in 1931. His face in this Woman sitting is “incredibly sculptural”, notes Fusco, but it is “juxtaposed by the body, which was created from these curved, sinuous and voluptuous lines”. And it’s surrounded by “brilliant bursts of color,” she says.

The painting, which measures 57½ inches by 44⅞ inches, is guaranteed by a third party and will be offered on May 11 in New York at Christie’s first evening sale of the 20th century, encompassing art from the 1880s to the 1980s. The sale , which represents a restructuring of the auction house’s sales formats away from specific artistic movements such as Impressionism and the Modern, will also feature Claude Monet Waterloo Bridge, 1899-1903. estimated to sell for around US $ 35 million.