In 1932 Pablo Picasso painted the “Femme Assise Près d’une Fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)” (” The Woman Sitting near a Window”).
This portrait is of this teenage lover and most important ‘muse’ from a critical point of his career.
It will go on sale in Christie’s lately rebranded 20th Century Art Evening Sale on May 11 in New York on May 11. It is estimated to go for $55 million.
The co-head of the 20th Century sale, Vanessa Fusco, says that the year 1932 was a year that was going to either make it or break it for Picasso.
She further says:
“He was 50-years-old. He got accomplished, popular, famous, but what comes after critical success? Would this pioneer continue to innovate, or would he just rely on his past, on the reputation he’d built up?”
Picasso has a thunderous marriage with Olga Khokhlova. However, he began an affair with a 17-year-old named Marie-Thérèse Walter.
Marie-Thérèse Walter inspired many of his drawings, canvases, and sculptures.
Many paintings from this period would often show nude women.
However, Picasso’s painting “Femme Assise Près d’une Fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)” shows a woman who is present and wide awake.
According to Fusco, the most striking characteristic of this art is its monumental scale. It is five feet tall, and the woman lives on the canvas.
Furthermore, Fusco says that more thought is put into her and a deep sensuality without degrading, unlike other paintings.
In February 2013, this painting, “Femme Assise Près d’une Fenêtre,” was last auctioned.
It was sold for $44.8 million to a third-party guarantor in London.
This buyer was the only one bidding over this artwork with the chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, Patti Wong, over the phone.
This painting first appeared in New York at Christie’s in 1997 and was sold for $7.5 million.
Recently, the painting was put on public display in Picasso 1932, the exhibition made for the Year of Wonders artists.
The painting will not get auctioned at the new 20th Century Art Evening Sale, which will have various works from the 1870s to the 1980s.
According to Fusco, the new format introduced is an “organic need to redefine the way auctions were held and to respond to the way collectors are collecting.”
Features of Picasso’s Portrait
Picasso’s portrait paintings are known for their distinctive features, often characterized by his innovative and groundbreaking artistic style.
- Picasso’s portraits feature Cubist-inspired, abstract forms.
- He often depicted subjects from multiple angles simultaneously.
- Facial features and proportions are frequently distorted for expressive purposes.
- Bold and vibrant colors are a hallmark of his portrait palette.
- Picasso experimented with innovative materials like collages and mixed media.
- His portraits convey a wide range of emotions and psychological depth.
- Picasso’s style evolved through various artistic periods in his career.
- Personal symbols and motifs added layers of meaning to his portraits.
- His influence on modern art is profound and far-reaching.
- Picasso’s subjects ranged from family to historical figures, each uniquely captured.
