Works by Picasso Spanning 7 Decades, Led by Tête de Marie-Thérèse (Estimate $15/20 Million)

Sotheby’s spring Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art will be held in New York on 7 May 2014. It will offer an impressive selection of 14 works by Pablo Picasso, with examples reaching across his remarkable career – from an early drawing dated to 1900, through a late oil painting from 1969.

The group features

Tête de Marie- Thérèse from 1932,

a radiant example of his paintings depicting his beloved mistress of the early 1930s (est. $15/20 million). The present example may be counted among the most painterly and expressive of these pictures, created when Marie- Thérèse was firmly at the center of Picasso's artistic universe. Tête de Marie-Thérèse was part of Jacqueline Picasso’s private collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures that her late husband had bequeathed her. Jacqueline generously gifted this work to William Rubin, director of prestigious department of painting and sculpture at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Le Sauvetage

represents the largest and most highly developed treatment of a theme which emerged from Pablo Picasso’s memories of the summer spent at the beach with his young mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, at Dinard in 1928 (est. $14/18 million). The dramatic scene depicts a drowned woman being rescued, inspired perhaps by an event in which Marie Thérèse participated or reported to Picasso, while figures swim and play on the beach. The exuberant and dream-like quality of the composition is heightened by the saturated pigments, independent planes of color and the fantastical cavorting bathers that swirl around the center of the canvas. Le Sauvetage last appeared at auction at Sotheby’s New York in 2004, when it was acquired by the present owners – prior to that sale, it had remained in another European private collection for 40 years.

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