Sotheby’s will auction a Pablo Picasso painting of Françoise Gilot during a Modern Art Evening Sale on November 18. Last exhibited to the public in 1981, the piece comes from the Neumann Family Collection and carries an estimate of $9 million to $12 million. Picasso’s ‘Buste de femme’ (1949) is considered a “late, but great addition” to the auction house’s sale, with expectations for it to achieve between $9 million and $12 million.
Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of Impressionist and Modern Art for the Americas, noted that the painting, ‘Buste de femme’ (1949), “has just been sitting on a wall,” allowing it to “appreciate in value over the decades.”
An accomplished artist in her own right, Gilot, passed away last year at the age of 101. She was Picasso’s long term partner, with an age difference of 40 years. She is the mother of two of his children, Claude and Paloma. In her memoir, she described their relationship as tumultuous. “Speaks to a moment in which Picasso was exceptionally happy and enamored of Gilot.” Said Dawes about the paintings, with their bright color palette.
The painting was acquired by Morton G. Neumann, a Chicago businessman who made his fortune in the mail-order industry, in 1951 from Picasso’s primary art dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Nearly thirty years later, ‘Buste de femme’ was included in an exhibition of the Neumann family’s collection, which was displayed at the National Gallery of Art in 1980 and at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1981.
Portraits of Picasso’s other romantic partners generally perform better at auction. For instance, portraits of Jacqueline Roque can sell for over $50 million, and paintings of Dora Maar have reached nearly $100 million. Dawes expressed a particular interest in how the market for portraits of Gilot might be redefined: “I think that it’s paintings like this, which are as fresh and as exquisite, that have the ability to kind of recalibrate people’s expectations for what a given subject can be worth.”
Bidding activity for ‘Buste de femme’ may also be affected by the growing interest in Gilot’s life as an artist, both before and after her relationship with Picasso. Dawes explained, “When people become intensely fascinated by that person, then the meaning of a portrait of them is increased and, by extension, the value.” He added, “That kind of intrigue and fascination and appreciation of Gilot right now is at a peak. It’ll be very interesting to see how that translates into value. And I think there could be real price discovery in this case.”
