Picasso masterpiece 'Woman with a Watch' sells for $139mn at Sotheby's auction
Picasso
"Woman with a Watch", a Pablo Picasso masterpiece, sold for USD 139.3 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Wednesday (November 8). This is the second-highest price a Picasso piece hasever gotten.
"Woman with a Watch" was painted by Picasso in 1932 and features French painter Marie-Therese Walter, one of the Spanish artist's companions and muses. According to Sotheby's, the painting was valued at over USD 120 million before it was put up for auction.
The auction house has organised a special sale of the collection of Emily Fisher Landau, the wealthy New Yorker who was a patron of the arts. She passed away this year at the age of 102.
"Painted in 1932 -- Picasso's 'annus mirabilis' --is full of joyful, passionate abandon yet at the same time it is utterly considered and resolved," said Julian Dawes, Sotheby's head of impressionist and modern art as quoted by AFP.
He called the painting "a masterpiece by every measure."
It was considered that Walter was Picasso's "golden muse". She features in another painting. This one will be auctioned on Thursday at Christie's and is expected to net USD 25-35 million.
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Picasso and Walter met each other in Paris in 1927. At that time, Picasso was still married to Olga Khokhlova, a Russian-Ukrainian ballet dancer. Walter was 17 years old at the time.
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Picasso also included her in another painting of his called "Femme assise pres d'une fenetre (Marie-Therese)". This painting netted 103.4 million dollars in 2021 at a Christie's auction.
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Fresh look at Picasso's life
Pablo Picasso passed away in 1973 at the age of 91. Half a century after his death he is still counted among the most influential artists of modern times and hailed as a creative genius.
However, after the #MeToo movement, Picasso's life was also looked at through a different lens and led to accusations that he had a violent hold on the lives of women who were inspirations for his art.
(With inputs from agencies)