Art Auctions/CHRISTIES ARTS and CULTURE AUCTIONS

PICASSO’S SURREALIST MASTERPIECE LA FENÊTRE OUVERTE TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION FOR THE FIRST TIME 

Written by Staff Writer

PICASSO’S SURREALIST MASTERPIECELA FENÊTRE OUVERTE TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION FOR THE FIRST TIME 

1 MARCH 2022

THE ART OF THE SURREAL EVENING SALE20/21 SHANGHAI TO LONDON

  • Pablo Picasso’s La fenêtre ouverte will be offered at auction for the first time ever with a pre-sale estimate of £14,000,000-24,000,000
  • La fenêtre ouverte is a rare example from Picasso’s Surrealist period, which will highlight the 21st edition of The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale
  • Held in the same European collection for half a century, this painting is a surreal depiction of Picasso and his great muse Marie-Thérèse Walter
  • Christie’s continues to establish cultural dialogues between major international art hubs, launching the key 20/21 Marquee Weeks with 20/21 Shanghai to London sale series
  • The sale series will incorporate 20th / 21st Century: Shanghai Evening Sale, 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale and The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale

ImagePablo Picasso, La fenêtre ouverte (1929, estimate: £14,000,000-24,000,000)

SHANGHAI AND LONDON – Presented at auction for the first time, La fenêtre ouverte (1929, estimate: £14,000,000-24,000,000) is a seminal work from Pablo Picasso’s Surrealist period. The painting will highlight Christie’s 21st edition of The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, a key element of the 20/21 Shanghai to London series of auctions, which will take place on 1 March 2022. Impressively scaled and rendered with a bold colour palette and direct handling, La fenêtre ouverte is a work of striking visual power. Painted on 22 November 1929, this complex and compelling studio scene is one of a series of Atelier works that Picasso had begun around 1926, richly symbolic and radically constructed paintings that reveal the multi-faceted interests of the artist at this time. Other works from this series are housed in museums including The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Musée National d’Art Moderne, Le Centre Pompidou, Paris. At once a still life, a veiled Atelier scene, and a Surrealist distortion of reality, La fenêtre ouverte is rich with personal and artistic symbolism.

Towering in the foreground of this painting are two highly abstracted figures. On the right stands a plaster bust that appears to be a disguised image of the artist’s great lover and muse of this time, Marie-Thérèse Walter. The figurative object on the left, an amalgam of feet intersected with an arrow, is said to be an abstracted, symbolic representation of Picasso himself. Two spires of the church of Sainte-Clotilde are identifiable in the background. John Richardson has suggested that this work therefore depicts the secret Left Bank apartment that Picasso and Marie-Thérèse shared as a hideaway during their relationship.  In the foreground, a configuration of abstracted objects are depicted in an arrangement reminiscent of the artist’s earlier cubist still lifes.

Olivier Camu, Deputy Chairman, Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s: “Held in the same European collection for half a century, this powerful and explosively coloured painting from the highpoint of Picasso’s Surrealist period and two years into his clandestine love affair with Marie-Thérèse, represents a brilliant fusion of the different passions and inspirations that defined the artist’s life at the end of the 1920s. Relishing the secret nature of their romance, Picasso could not help but include his lover’s presence in the form of the plaster bust in this painting. Marie-Thérèse’s presence in Picasso’s life reinvigorated every area of his work, her statuesque form and radiant beauty, as well as her youthful, carefree sensibility inspiring the artist to create works that stand as the finest of his career. This metamorphosised, cryptically coded work stands as a fascinating self-portrait of Picasso and his golden haired muse, which we are thrilled to present to the market for the first time as a major highlight of the 21st edition of The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale.”

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