Pablo Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar Could Bring $50 Million at May 3 Sotheby's AUction Sotheby’s May 3, 2006 evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York will feature a stunning portrait by Pablo Picasso – Dora Maar au chat – one of the largest and most important portraits o
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - --UPDATE-- Dora Maar portrait brings $95,216,000 at Sotheby's auction Wednesday evening May 3. 2006 see
http://News-Antique.com for details.
Sotheby’s May 3, 2006 evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York will feature a stunning portrait by Pablo Picasso – Dora Maar au chat – one of the largest and most important portraits of the woman who was Picasso’s mistress and principal source of inspiration. The canvas (50 ½ by 37 ½ inches) was painted in 1941 at the height of their tempestuous relationship and has not been seen in public for more than 40 years. This rare, three-quarter length portrait is estimated to bring in the region of $50 million.
Charles Moffett, Vice Chairman of Sotheby’s, said, “Dora Maar with Cat is unquestionably one of Picasso's most extraordinary portrayals of the woman who for nearly a decade was his muse, model, and lover. An accomplished photographer who was close to key members of the Surrealist circle, Maar appealed deeply to Picasso because of her arresting and wild beauty, engaging intellect, and commitment as an artist. As Brigitte Léal has observed with regard to the portraits of Dora Maar that Picasso painted in the early 1940s, ‘... they embody the height of modern beauty as [André] Breton envisioned it, based on the principle of vital disorder, which the figure of Dora Maar, in her extreme mutability, her real, spiritual restlessness, will forever incarnate’”
David Norman, a Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department Worldwide, noted, “Not since Sotheby’s sale of Picasso’s Woman Seated in a Garden from the historic Saidenberg Collection has there been as important a portrait of Dora Maar to appear at auction. That portrait from 1938 sold for $49 million in November 1999 in New York. Dora Maar Au Chat presents the artist’s most mysterious and challenging mistress regally posed three-quarter length in a large wooden chair with a small black cat perched behind her in both an amusing and
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menacing attitude. The faceted planes of her body and richly layered surface of brushstrokes impart a monumental and sculptural quality to this dazzling portrait. The painting is also remarkable for its brilliance of color and the complex and dense patterning of the model’s dress. The powerful figure is set in a dramatic, yet simple setting composed of a vertiginously inclined plane of wooden floorboards and shallow interior space that is arranged in a manner reminiscent of Picasso’s earliest manipulations of space in a Cubist manner. This is a thrilling painting to view and an incredible opportunity to bring to the market.”
Dora Maar au chat is one of Picasso’s most spectacular depictions of his lover and artistic companion. Their partnership had been one of intellectual exchange and intense passion -- Maar was an artist, spoke Picasso’s native Spanish, and shared his political concerns. She even assisted with the execution of the monumental Guernica and produced the only photo-documentary of the work in progress. She was an intellectual force – a characteristic that both stimulated
