A portrait of famed Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s young mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, will soon go on sale for the first time next month
In this file image, a visitor looks at the painting “Femme Nue Couchee ” by Pablo Picasso during a media preview April 1, 2009 of a exhibition on loan to Sotheby’s New York entitled “Women.” AFP
A portrait of famed Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s young mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, will soon go on sale for the first time next month.
As per a report by CNN, the painting, Femme nue couchee (Naked woman reclining), could sell for more than $60 million at its debut auction at Sotheby’s in New York on 17 May.
The ‘Modern Evening Auction’ will also see artworks by some of the greatest painters, including Claude Monet’s Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Nu s’essuyant and Marc Chagall’s Le Modele.
The work by Picasso, painted in April 1932, could become one of the most valuable portraits of Walter ever offered at an auction.
Let’s find out more about the painting and the muse:
Who was Marie-Therese Walter?
Marie-Therese Walter was a French model, who was a lover and muse of Pablo Picasso. According to the CNN report, Picasso first met Walter in Paris in 1927 when she was 17 years old and he was still married to his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, a Russian-Ukrainian dancer.
During her association with Picasso, Walter would become the inspiration for some of his most sought-after canvases, drawings and sculptures.
It is believed that Picasso kept his relation with Walter a secret from his wife at least until 1935. During the more than 10 years they stayed together, Picasso created more than 80 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints of Walter, including the 1932 painting Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, and the 1937 oil-on-canvas Femme au beret et a la robe quadrillee (Woman wearing a beret and checkered dress).
Walter was also heavily featured in Picasso’s celebrated Vollard Suite of etchings, produced from 1930-1937.
The portrait of Marie-Therese Walter to go on sale
The Femme nue couchee, painted in April 1932, captures “Walter as a sea creature, with gray, languorous limbs and a woman’s face in profile”.
As per the CNN report, citing a statement by Sotheby’s, Picasso was pioneering “in the history of the nude figure with his depiction of her reclining in a highly abstracted space, highlighting her biomorphic figure with touches of fertility, sexuality, and grace.”
Sotheby’s said the anonymous seller acquired “Femme nue couchee” directly from Picasso’s descendants in 2006 after the large-scale painting was held in the artist’s estate for decades.
The art auctioneer said that after spending decades in the Spanish artist’s estate, the painting was acquired by an anonymous art enthusiast in 2006 from Picasso’s descendants.
Helena Newman, the auctioneer’s worldwide head of Impressionist & Modern Art, described “Femme nue couchee” as a “ground-breaking, extraordinarily sensual work.”
Brooke Lampley, chair and head of global fine art sales at Sotheby’s, added that the work is a “radical departure from tradition”.
“…this striking painting is at the same time a deeply lyrical ode to the artist’s unbound desire for Marie-Therese; with her fin-like, endlessly pliable limbs, the portrait continues to enchant as it perfectly captures Picasso’s muse as the ultimate expression of his genius,” Lampley said, as quoted by CNN.
Last year, another portrait of Walter by Picasso, Femme assise pres d’une fenetre (Marie-Therese), sold at Christie’s New York for $103.41 million.
In 2010, Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust sold for more than $106 million.
With inputs from agencies
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