Saturday, April 16, 2011

Six works by Pablo Picasso, spanning the artist's long career from 1901 to 1970, going on sale at Sotheby's

Millions of pounds worth of art by modern masters from Pablo Picasso to David Hockney have gone on display in London ahead of a Sotheby's auction in New York next month. The Picassos span the entirety of his career from 1901 to 1970.



"Femmes Lisant (Deux Personnages)" (1934) by Pablo Picasso. The work will lead Sotheby's May Impressionist and Modern art sale in New York and is estimated to bring $25 million to $35 million.

“Femmes Lisant (Deux Personnages)” depicts Marie-Therese Walter as a blue-faced, supple figure reading a book with another woman. It’s the top lot in Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art sale on May 3. The evening auction is expected to tally more than $150 million, the New York-based company said.

The market in this mistress has surged in the past year. The 1932 “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” went for $106.5 million -- a record for any work of art at auction -- at Christie’s International in New York last May. Sotheby’s in London sold the 1932 “La Lecture” for 25.2 million pounds ($40.6 million) in February. Gagosian gallery will open the “Picasso and Marie- Therese: L’amour fou” exhibition on April 14 in New York’s Chelsea district.

“These are images of desire and rapture,” said Simon Shaw, senior vice president and head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department in New York. Referring to “La Lecture,” he said, “the picture we just sold generated a huge competition; there were seven bidders.”

“Femmes Lisant,” with its vibrant palette and at least one sexual innuendo, was consigned by an anonymous private collector who bought it in 1981 from the Pace Gallery in New York. It had originally come from the Picasso estate.

Married and 45, Picasso spotted Walter in 1927 on a Paris street when she was 17. She would be the artist’s greatest love for the next decade, inspiring numerous paintings and sculptures, according to John Richardson, Picasso’s biographer.

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