Pablo Picasso's ""Jeune fille endormie" (1935) (via AP/Christie's)
A vibrant Picasso painting of his teenage lover Marie-Thérèse Walter is to be auctioned at Christie’s June 21st auction in London. The work, which has not been seen in public for six decades, was donated by an anonymous American to the University of Sydney under the condition that they sell the work to fund scientific research.
It is worth noting that Picasso met Marie-Therese Walter in 1927 when he was 45 and she was just 17. There is currently a show, Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’Amour Fou, at Gagosian gallery’s 21st Street space in Chelsea that explores the modern master’s images of his lover. Curated by noted Picasso biographer John Richardson and Marie-Thérèse’s granddaughter, the Gagosian exhibition’s press release explains that:
More than any other woman that Picasso desired and painted, Marie-Thérèse, with her statuesque body and strong, pure profile, fueled his imagination with a luminous dream of youth.
That’s certainly one way of looking at it.
