Lot 21. Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Buste de femme au chapeau. Dated 27.5.39. (center right). Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 by 21 1/4 in., 65.1 by 54 cm. Painted on May 27, 1939. Estimate 18,000,000 — 25,000,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s will present Pablo Picasso’s Buste de femme au chapeau as a highlight of their Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in New York on 14 November 2017. Characterized by its vibrant color palette, sharp angularity and bold form, the portrait is a salient example of the Madonna-and-Magdalene dichotomy that manifested in Picasso’s work while he was simultaneously involved with two of his greatest muses: Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar. This tumultuous time in the artist’s life in turn yielded one of the most groundbreaking and creative periods of his oeuvre.

The daring oil painting is being sold to benefit charitable organizations including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and carries a pre-sale estimate of $18/25 million. The work, which has traveled to both London and Hong Kong this fall, returns to New York for public exhibition in our York Avenue galleries beginning 3 November. 

Jeremiah Evarts, Head of Evening Sales for Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department in New York, commented: “We are delighted to be offering this exceptional painting by Picasso in our Evening Sale this November. Picasso’s female portraits resonate among the most powerful subjects in his prolific body of work. Akin to many of Picasso’s greatest pictures, Buste de femme au chapeau remained in the artist’s possession for more than 30 years, until his death in 1973, at which time his daughter Maya, inherited the work. We look forward to offering this exquisite work in the Evening Sale.” 

The present work illustrates a particularly turbulent time in the Picasso’s life – his mother died in January 1939, during a period of intense political upheaval throughout Europe and particularly in the artist’s native Spain. However, this period also provided the impetus for some of Picasso’s most revolutionary stylistic techniques. 

Unable to travel to Spain and living in a country facing increasing pressure from Nazi Germany, Picasso maintained relationships with both Marie-Thérèse and Maar. Both of the women, markedly different in their temperament and physical appearance, populated Picasso’s life and his paintings, and the present work is a strong manifestation of their shared influence throughout his oeuvre. While many attributes of Buste de femme au chapeau point to Marie-Thérèse − the blonde sweep of hair and bright-yet-soft tonalities of the palette − whispers of Maar are also reflected. 

In contrast with his depictions of a more passive Marie-Thérèse, the present painting is one of Picasso’s most animated, tactile and sculptural renderings of the young woman. Her figure is punctuated with incisions into the thick paint, adding dimension to her features. Maar’s presence appears vis-a-vis the artist's focus on Marie-Thérèse's hat. While the accessory may have been important to the sitter at the time, its significance in this painting is elucidated in retrospect. Maar was immortalized in Picasso's portraits as the wearer of stylish hats, and what may have been an flamboyant personal item to Marie-Thérèse at the time, becomes a symbolic indicator of her status as the saintly new mother of Picasso's daughter, and the antithesis of her new rival.

Lot 21. Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Buste de femme au chapeau, detail. Dated 27.5.39. (center right). Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 by 21 1/4 in., 65.1 by 54 cm. Painted on May 27, 1939. Estimate 18,000,000 — 25,000,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby’s.