Pablo Picasso
La Gommeuse, 1901
Estimate upon Request
Sotheby’s to auction Picasso’s ‘La Gommeuse’ The finest Blue Period work by Pablo Picasso to come to auction in a generation and a seminal Waterlilies by Claude Monet will be offered in Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York on 5 November 2015.]]>
October 12, 2015, source: Sotheby’s
Both works are on offer from the remarkable collection of William I. Koch – American entrepreneur, collector and America’s Cup winner.
Picasso painted the stunning “La Gommeuse” in 1901, emboldened by the success of his first exhibition in Paris but reeling from his friend Carlos Casagemas’s suicide. The work exemplifies the poignancy, introspection and sexual charge of this seminal moment in the history of Modernism (estimate upon request).
The reverse of “La Gommeuse” adds another fascinating aspect to the work’s history. Conservation arranged by Mr. Koch in 2000 revealed a portrait of Pere Mañach on the reverse of the canvas, which had been hidden under lining for a century. The whimsical and wicked rendering depicts the dealer wearing an exotic headdress, with his head on a female body in a dancer’s leap. Scholarship has suggested that Picasso was frustrated with Mañach’s professional dealings during the summer of 1901, and this outrageous portrait encapsulates their tumultuous friendship.
Claude Monet’s “Nymphéas” are amongst the most iconic and celebrated Impressionist paintings. The profound impact these pictures have made on the evolution of Modern Art marks this series as Monet’s greatest achievement. The famous lily pond in his garden at Giverny provided the subject matter for most of his major late works. These spectacular canvases document the changes in his style and his constant pictorial innovations as he continued to paint this theme until his death in 1926. The present work dates from circa 1908 when he painted what are arguably the finest examples from the series.
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