A Pablo Picasso painting not seen by the public in 80 years is now on view at the French auction house Lucien Paris. The work, a portriat of Dora Maar, the artist’s lover, muse, and an artist in her own right, was painted in 1943 and purchased by a private collector in August 1944.
Before that, the work, titled Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat (Dora Maar), was only exhibited a few times outside of Picasso’s studio. The current seller, who is anonymous, inherited the painting from a grandparent. Photographic evidence of the painting exists in a pair of 1944 photos by Brassaï of paintings stacked in Picasso’s studio, published in the auction house’s catalogue about the sale.
Lucien has listed the painting with an estimate of approximately $9.5 million, according to the Guardian. That is well off the artist’s current auction record, set at $179.4 million in 2015 at Christie’s New York for the 1955 painting Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’). It was reportedly sold to the Qatari royal Al Thani family.
Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat is one of Picasso’s many depictures of Maar. This one was painted towards the end of the couple’s relationship. More famous is the 1937 “Weeping Woman” series, which shows Maar in repeated states of turmoil and distress. T
The sale will take place on October 24 at Hôtel Drouot in Paris.