Picasso’s muse leads sale.
Picasso’s portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter from 1937 was the top lot at Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist & Modern and Surrealist Art in London tonight. It sold for £49.8 million.
The sale totalled £136,001,500 across thirty-six lots. 64% of the lots sold for prices over their pre-sale high-estimates, with an average lot value of £3.8m.
Painted just months after Guernica and his Weeping Women, this portrait appeared at auction for the first time. The work was used as a means of exploring his feelings for Marie-Thérèse and his new lover Dora Maar, who emerges in the shadow. There is a conscious blurring of the two styles inspired by the two muses, reaching its pinnacle in the silhouetted ‘other’ that emerges from behind the main subject.
Alberto Giacometti’s chandelier sold for £7.6 million, Picasso’s Matador made £16.5 million and Bateaux à Collioure by Andre Derain made £10.9 million. There were bidders from 35 countries with strong activity from Asia, Russia the US and the UK.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 14, January 29, February 6 and February 27, 2018)