“One of Emily Fisher Landau’s first major purchases, Femme à la Montre is Pablo Picasso’s Mona Lisa. Painted 1932, when the artist is preparing for his major retrospective, there’s a feeling that he is literally painting his legacy, looking back at the past and reflecting on his own place in art history. The works from this moment are magnum opi meant to represent him at his apogee, which is just what this painting does.”
Brooke Lampley, Sotheby’s Global Chairman, Head of Global Fine Art
NEW YORK, 8 NOVEMBER – Appearing at auction for the very first time, Pablo Picasso’s magnificent Femme à la montre, the prized jewel of the Emily Fisher Landau Collection, sold for $139.4m at Sotheby’s New York just now, becoming the second most valuable work by the artist ever sold at auction and taking its place among the top ten works ever sold at auction.
Depicting the artist’s love and ‘golden muse’ Marie-Thérèse Walter, the painting was executed in 1932, widely considered the artist’s ‘year of wonders’ – a year so important an entire museum exhibition has been dedicated to it. Tonight, this exceptional work took its place as the most valuable ever sold at auction from that standout year, eclipsing by a wide margin the previous high for a work from this year ($106.5 million achieved for Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, in 2010).
Still underway (the Picasso was lot 10 of this evening’s 31-lot offering), the evening sale of the Emily Fisher Landau Collection continues. Thus far this evening a number of new benchmarks have already been set, with new records established for Agnes Martin and Mark Tansey. Further works by the titans of 20th century art still to be offered, including major works by Georgia O’Keefe, Ed Rusha, and Andy Warhol.
The auction of the Emily Fisher Landau Collection marks the first of Sotheby’s Marquee New York Sales, a week of major auctions that includes the Modern Evening Auction (Monday, 13 November), The Now Evening Auction (Wednesday, 15 November), and the Contemporary Evening Auction (Wednesday, 15 November). The sale series will also include a single-lot auction presented by RM Sotheby’s for a 1962 Ferrari GTO (Monday, 13 November), which, with an estimate in excess of $60 million, could become the most valuable Ferrari ever sold at auction.
Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction will include several additional works by Pablo Picasso, celebrating the full range of his artistic output, from the inception of Analytical Cubism to his late-period portraits. Leading the offerings will be Compotier et guitare (1932), not only one of the most valuable still lifes by the artist ever offered at auction (estimated to achieve in the region of $25 million), the work can also be read as a coded portrait of his muse and lover Marie-Thérèse.
