{"id":238356,"date":"2025-10-25T03:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T03:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238356\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T03:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T03:16:08","slug":"picasso-portrait-of-muse-dora-maar-in-vivid-hat-long-hidden-from-view-sells-for-32-million-euros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238356\/","title":{"rendered":"Picasso portrait of muse Dora Maar in vivid hat, long hidden from view, sells for 32 million euros"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 A vividly hued Picasso<\/a> portrait of longtime muse and partner Dora Maar that had remained hidden from public view<\/a> for more than eight decades sold Friday at auction for 32 million euros (about $37 million), including fees \u2014 surpassing expectations but far from the artist\u2019s most expensive work ever auctioned.<\/p>\n

Painted in July 1943, \u201cBust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)\u201d depicts Maar in a brightly colored floral hat. Maar, an artist and photographer herself, had been Picasso\u2019s partner<\/a> and muse for about seven years, and the relationship was coming to a painful close.<\/a> The work was purchased in 1944 and had not been on the market since, remaining in the family collection.<\/p>\n

The painting, part of Picasso\u2019s \u201cWoman in a Hat\u201d series<\/a>, was auctioned at the Drouot auction house in Paris<\/a>. Auctioneer Christophe Lucien called the final sale, to a buyer in the room, \u201can enormous success,\u201d as well as a very emotional moment. He said the price \u2014 32,012,397 euros<\/a> after adding buyer fees<\/a> to the 27-million hammer price \u2014 was not only well above estimates but also the highest paid at auction this year for any artwork in France.<\/p>\n

Lucien called the painting \u201ca little piece of the story of love\u201d \u2014 albeit a bittersweet one \u2014 between Picasso and Maar. She was 29 when she met the artist and quickly became his muse and the model for \u201cGuernica,\u201d<\/a> among other works. He later left her for the younger Francoise Gilot and she died at 89, having lived an increasingly reclusive life.<\/p>\n

Theirs \u201cwas not a very simple story,\u201d Lucien said, adding that the painting came at the end of it. \u201cYou see that she was containing tears because she understood that Picasso was leaving her.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a preview this week, Picasso specialist Agn\u00e8s Sevestre-Barb\u00e9 marveled at how vivid the portrait has remained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a painting that is exactly as it was when it left the studio,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t varnished, which means we have all its raw material, all of it. It\u2019s a painting where you can feel all the colors, the entire chromatic range.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a painting that speaks for itself,\u201d she added. \u201cYou just have to look at it \u2014 it\u2019s full of expression, and you can see all of Picasso\u2019s genius.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, Sevestre-Barb\u00e9 noted, the work had only been seen in a black-and-white photograph. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t imagine from this photo that this painting was so colorful, so amazing, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auctioneer Lucien said before the sale that the work was of huge interest across the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s being talked about in all the world capitals with a strong art market, from the United States to Asia, and of course through all the major European markets<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Though selling above expectations, the work was far from the most expensive Picasso work sold at auction. In 2023, the artist\u2019s famed \u201cFemme \u00e0 la montre\u201d (\u201cWoman with a Watch\u201d) \u2014 portraying another muse, Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Walter \u2014 sold for $139.4 million, the second most valuable Picasso sold at auction. The most valuable was $179.4 million, paid in 2015 for a version of \u201cLes Femmes d\u2019Alger\u201d (\u201cWomen of Algiers\u201d).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2014 A vividly hued Picasso portrait of longtime muse and partner Dora Maar that had remained hidden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-238356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}