Picasso painting unseen for 80 years up for auction

An oil painting by Pablo Picasso, unseen by the public for more than 80 years, will go under the hammer in Paris next month.

The painting, “Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat,” depicts French photographer and painter Dora Maar — one of Picasso’s lovers and most famous muses — wearing a bright, flowery hat made up of pastel green, blue and yellow strokes.

Despite the vivid colour palate, Maar’s expression is one of concern.

Created in July 1943, during the Nazi occupation of Paris, the work is a “canvas of major historical and artistic importance, all the more as it remained unseen by the public for over eighty years,” according to art expert Agnès Sevestre-Barbé.

“It was in May 1943 that Picasso met the young painter Françoise Gilot, who, after the war, would bring a clearer, brighter spirit to his work. But in the summer of 1943, Dora remained his principal model,” Sevestre-Barbé said in an essay published online by auction house Lucien Paris, which is selling the painting.

The newly discovered portrait of Maar was acquired in 1944 by an unnamed collector and has remained in his family ever since. “To our knowledge, it has never been exhibited nor appeared at auction,” Sevestre-Barbé said.

It is expected to sell for at least US$9.45 million, according to Reuters news agency. CNN has approached Lucien Paris for comment.

Dutch art historian Arthur Brand told CNN on Friday that he expects the painting to sell for a higher price than estimates suggest.

“Picasso, as we all know, is one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, and so every time something like this pops up it’s exciting,” Brand said. “Sometimes paintings have been in the same family for decades, in this case since 1944.”

Brand, an art crime investigator who has recovered more than 200 works of art, including ones by Picasso, said the depiction of Maar in the painting “gives a more sad impression” than some of his earlier portraits of her, adding: “It seems like she is crying.”

Several factors could have influenced this somber tone. Not only had the pair’s relationship “more or less ended,” Brand said, but at the time of painting the Nazis were still occupying Paris.

“Picasso probably was worried that he would never be able to sell or exhibit again, so maybe his own sadness is also reflected in this painting,” Brand added.

Picasso painted Maar many times, most famously in the guise of the “Weeping Woman” in 1937 – a work that powerfully conveys the emotional impact of the Spanish Civil War – but also “Portrait of Dora Maar” (1937) and “Dora Maar au Chat” (1941).

Born Henriette Theodora Markovitch in 1907, Maar grew up between Argentina and France. She studied in Paris before moving into commercial and fashion photography.

A photographer and artist in her own right, Marr recognised the limitations that her turbulent relationship with Picasso brought to her own career. “I’m still too famous as Picasso’s mistress to be accepted as a painter,” she once said, according to her friend, the American art writer James Lord.

Maar also told Lord that Picasso’s portraits of her were “lies.”

Later in her life, Maar mostly withdrew from photography and concentrated on painting, also finding solace in poetry, religion and philosophy, according to London’s Tate Modern art gallery.

The 81- x 60-centimetre (32- x 24-inch) painting, which is signed in the upper-left corner of the canvas, will be auctioned on October 24.

A certificate of authenticity from the Comité Picasso — a committee established to verify the originality of the artist’s works — will be issued to the buyer, the auction house said.

By Billy Stockwell, CNN