Picasso’s painting sold at Sotheby’s for $ 37 million

Pablo Picasso’s painting (1881-1973), Nature morte aux tulipes, which depicts one of the artist’s mistresses, was sold on November 8 for $ 37 million at Sotheby’s fall auction in New York.

The model for this work of the artist from Malaga was Marie-Thérèse Walter. One of the main muses of the Spanish genius this time is depicted in the form of a sculptural bust. “This young woman with a Greek profile was a model for Picasso’s most outstanding paintings. And Nature morte aux tulipes is a prime example of this. The artist first made a sculpture of Maria Theresa, which he then depicted in a still life, which has, among other things, a high sexual charge, ”says Simon Shaw, director of the impressionism department at Sotheby’s.

Throughout 1931, Picasso made a series of plaster sculptures, which he later depicted in his paintings. At the same time, he met with the 17-year-old Marie-Theres Walter. A secret romance erupts between them, since at that time the artist was still married to Olga Khokhlova. During this period, Picasso worked a lot in the studio, which he acquired in 1930, there were also meetings between the artist and Walter.

"Nature morte aux tulipes" was first presented as part of a major retrospective of the artist, organized in Paris and Zurich in 1932. The painting was first auctioned in 2000, where it was sold for $ 28.6 million. This time, the work went for $ 37 million ($ 41.5 million with the commission of the auction house) and did not meet the forecasts of specialists who expected that the price for the painting would be more than $ 50 million.

Anna Sidorova