A RARE Picasso masterpiece from his prized Blue Period is to go up for auction.
Sotheby’s New York believes there will be strong interest when the La Gommeuse oil-on-canvas goes up for sale on November 5 with an estimated £39 million price tag. It includes a recently revealed portrait, also finished in oil-on-canvas, on the back.
Works from Picasso’s 1901-1904 Blue Period – which is “prized as his breakthrough” era – rarely come up for sale, Simon Shaw of Sotheby’s said.
Many of Picasso’s works from this period are held in major collections at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum, both in New York, and the Musee Picasso in Paris.
La Gommeuse is 32 inches by 21 inches in size and dates from 1901.
It has a naked woman on the front and a previously-unseen portrait of Picasso’s friend and art dealer Pere Manach on the back. Manach is painted wearing an exotic headdress and with his head on a female body in a dancer’s leap.
This image had remained hidden under lining for a century until it was revealed by conservation work on the painting in 2000.
Picasso painted La Gommeuse after his friend Carlos Casagemas’s suicide in 1901, and as he and Manach threw themselves into the debauchery of Paris life.
This painting is set to be the highlight of the Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sale – which is also to feature Nympheas by Monet which has an estimate of £19-33m.
It is part of Monet’s memorable images of his lily pond at Giverny and was painted in 1908.
Sotheby’s New York sold another painting from the Nympheas series in May this year for £35m.
The La Gommeuse and Nympheas, which are now up for sale, were part of the collection of US entrepreneur, America’s Cup winner and art collector Bill Koch.
Mr Shaw said described it as “two icons of art history from one of the greatest American collections ever assembled”.
The paintings will be on public view in Sotheby’s London galleries from October 10-15 before returning to New York for an exhibition beginning October 30 and the sale on November 5.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel