The auction of works by Picasso, which will be conducted live from Bellagio on Saturday, October 23, 2021. Pre-sale exhibitions of the full selection of works to be offered at auction will take place at Sotheby’s New York galleries (September 7 – 13) and at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art (October 21- 23) in Las Vegas, with traveling exhibitions of select highlights planned for Taipei (September 17 – 18) and Hong Kong (October 7 – 11). All exhibitions are complimentary and open to the public.
Featuring 11 works that showcase the range and breadth of Pablo Picasso’s celebrated career, the auction includes a highly curated selection of paintings, works on paper, and ceramics that span more than 50 years of artistic output from 1917 to 1969. The auction stars Femme au béret rouge-orange (estimate $20/30 million), one of Picasso’s defining portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter, the artist’s famed muse and lover who inspired many of his most revered and iconic portraits of the 1930s. Executed in 1938, the present painting is one the artist’s final works capturing Marie-Thérèse, and marks a pivotal time after Picasso met the photographer Dora Maar, whose visage slowly began to eclipse that of Marie-Thérèse in his work. Picasso’s deeply autobiographical portraits from this period reveal characteristics of both women, and reinforce how exceedingly rare paintings of Marie-Thérèse are from this year. Adorned with her signature beret, Picasso’s tender portrait uses a yellow and green palette to accentuate Marie-Thérèse’s rounded features, which are characteristic of Picasso’s portrayals of her, and further highlights how much the artist coveted this highly personal painting, which he kept in his private collection for decades.
The sale is further highlighted by two exquisite, large-scale portraits emblematic of the artist’s late period works: Homme et enfant (estimate $20/30 million) and Buste d’homme (estimate $10/15 million). Painted during one of the most inspired and productive periods of the artist’s life, from January 5, 1969 to February 2, 1970, both works were included in the monumental 1970 exhibition at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, arguably the most important exhibition of his late career. Each painting displays Picasso’s meditation on his artistic legacy, both from a personal and art historical perspective, and showcases the artist continuing to refine his mastery of portraiture in his final years of work.
Also included in the October sale is Nature morte au panier de fruits et aux fleurs (estimate $10/15 million), an outstanding, museum-quality still life painted by Picasso during the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1942. While Picasso was barred from exhibiting his work during this time, until the historic 1944 Salon d’Automne, also known as the Salon de la Libération, he remained as prolific as ever. Without the opportunity to present his work publicly, Picasso’s experience during the occupation caused him to look inward and meditate on life and death during wartime, and his output showcased bold stylistic choices of muted tones and graphic Cubist-inspired lines that reflected his introspection. This period is considered one of the greatest and most focused of Picasso’s renowned still lifes, comparable only to his earlier Cubist period.
The sale is rounded out by several works on paper, including a portrait of the commedia dell’arte character Pierrot (estimate $2.5/3.5 million); an additional wartime still life, Nature morte aux fleurs et au compotier (estimate $6/8 million), painted in Paris in 1943; Aiguière – Visage (estimate $60/80,000), a ceramic pitcher; and much more. More details about the works being offered at auction will be released in the coming weeks.