1935
See also : Prints by Picasso Russia Kandinsky Matisse Cars Cars II Cars 1930s Cars 1934-36 US cars Duesenberg Mercedes-Benz Aston Martin
1935 Front and Profile Together
2013 SOLD 40 M$ including premium
2016 SOLD for £ 19M including premium
PRE 2016 SALE DISCUSSION
A Tête de Femme painted by Picasso was sold for $ 40M including premium by Sotheby's on November 6, 2013. It is listed again by Sotheby's, for sale on February 3 in London, lot 10 estimated £ 16M.
I introduced this lot as follows in 2013 :
Pablo Picasso admires the face and the eyes of Marie-Thérèse. She is pregnant, but Picasso is forced to leave her temporarily to prepare his divorce from Olga.
Tête de femme, oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm painted on March 12, 1935, is a tribute by Pablo to his goddess, with bright colors. The artist uncorrelated the two themes of his aesthetic admiration : the face is seen in profile, which is a great angle to highlight the beauty of this young woman, but the eyes look straight towards the observer.
Afterwards, particularly with Dora, Pablo abused with this theme of dislocating the face. Here, the result is fresh and surprising, generating a real illusion of movement of the pretty head.
This artwork is also unique in the career of Pablo. After completing it, he will stop painting during a few months to satisfy other fantasies, including the Minotauromachie.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's in 2013.
A Tête de Femme painted by Picasso was sold for $ 40M including premium by Sotheby's on November 6, 2013. It is listed again by Sotheby's, for sale on February 3 in London, lot 10 estimated £ 16M.
I introduced this lot as follows in 2013 :
Pablo Picasso admires the face and the eyes of Marie-Thérèse. She is pregnant, but Picasso is forced to leave her temporarily to prepare his divorce from Olga.
Tête de femme, oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm painted on March 12, 1935, is a tribute by Pablo to his goddess, with bright colors. The artist uncorrelated the two themes of his aesthetic admiration : the face is seen in profile, which is a great angle to highlight the beauty of this young woman, but the eyes look straight towards the observer.
Afterwards, particularly with Dora, Pablo abused with this theme of dislocating the face. Here, the result is fresh and surprising, generating a real illusion of movement of the pretty head.
This artwork is also unique in the career of Pablo. After completing it, he will stop painting during a few months to satisfy other fantasies, including the Minotauromachie.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's in 2013.
1935 The Second Exile of Wassily Kandinsky
2016 SOLD for $ 23.3M including premium
Wassily Kandinsky left Moscow in 1921 when the Soviets threatened to ban abstract art. He left Berlin in 1933 when the Nazis closed the Bauhaus. He moved to Paris where he was helped by Duchamp.
Kandinsky loves the light and weather of Paris. He has no teaching responsibility and feels free despite the increasing heaviness of the European totalitarianisms. He introduces the curve, or more precisely the planar projection of a flexible tape, in his pictorial vocabulary and lets reappear some figurative symbols.
Rigide et courbé is painted in December 1935 with his new technique where he improves the texture by mingling sand in the oil paint. This mixed media on canvas 114 x 162 cm is estimated $ 18M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 16, lot 18 B.
'Courbé' is the central tape, accompanied by a musical rhythm. Its flexibility expresses with a new optimism the vagaries of fate. This figure is flanked by a bulge and extended at its right end by the horns of a bovine. Its interpretation as the theme of the rape of Europa is plausible and seductive. At the same time Picasso identifies himself with the Minotaur.
'Rigide' is the totalitarianism reduced to a group of skyscrapers from which however escapes a sign of life which may be a leafy branch or perhaps a fetus. In the following year in his Composition No. 9, the symbols of birth become dominant and the theme of the fetus is confirmed in several places either by an explicit figuration or by the addition of umbilical cords.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's :
Kandinsky loves the light and weather of Paris. He has no teaching responsibility and feels free despite the increasing heaviness of the European totalitarianisms. He introduces the curve, or more precisely the planar projection of a flexible tape, in his pictorial vocabulary and lets reappear some figurative symbols.
Rigide et courbé is painted in December 1935 with his new technique where he improves the texture by mingling sand in the oil paint. This mixed media on canvas 114 x 162 cm is estimated $ 18M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 16, lot 18 B.
'Courbé' is the central tape, accompanied by a musical rhythm. Its flexibility expresses with a new optimism the vagaries of fate. This figure is flanked by a bulge and extended at its right end by the horns of a bovine. Its interpretation as the theme of the rape of Europa is plausible and seductive. At the same time Picasso identifies himself with the Minotaur.
'Rigide' is the totalitarianism reduced to a group of skyscrapers from which however escapes a sign of life which may be a leafy branch or perhaps a fetus. In the following year in his Composition No. 9, the symbols of birth become dominant and the theme of the fetus is confirmed in several places either by an explicit figuration or by the addition of umbilical cords.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's :
Kandinsky painting bought directly from the artist by Solomon Guggenheim returns to auction https://t.co/qDctYtdUAX pic.twitter.com/73XK1bmZar
— The Art Newspaper (@TheArtNewspaper) September 15, 2016
1935 Portrait au manteau bleu by Matisse
2008 SOLD for $ 22.4M incluant premium by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
1935 Duesenberg with the Movie Stars
2018 SOLD for $ 22M including premium
In May 1935 the management of Duesenberg recognizes the commercial failure of their high-end chassis, the Model J released in 1928. EL Cord, boss of the group that owns Duesenberg, launches a project that could save the brand : create the best car in two units to be entrusted respectively to Gary Cooper and Clark Gable. This Duesenberg Special Speedster will be identified from 1951 with the reference SSJ.
The brand's chief designer, J. Herbert Newport, plans to use on a shortened chassis the powerful Duesenberg Special 400 hp eight-cylinder in-line engine under development. The stars give their opinion. An enthusiast about luxury cars, Gary Cooper is appealed by the unprecedented performance of the future model but prefers that this roadster looks like a classic Duesenberg. Newport gives up the idea of a modernist body.
The two cars are provided to the actors in December 1935 for a long-term loan. Cooper's wife, Sandra Shaw, immediately has sent their car back to the factory for changing the color.
Six months later the two stars receive a proposal to buy their car at one-third the price of an ordinary Model J. Cooper accepts. Gable is not interested : he already owns one of the ten units of the Duesenberg JN also produced in 1935.
Cooper and Gable did not make the spectacular use that Cord was waiting for. We do not know when Cooper sold his car. Cord could have anticipated that it is not so easy to use the capricious Hollywood celebrities as advertising agents for luxury cars. Already in 1934 Mae West had refused the project of a SJ Town Car designed especially for her by Duesenberg.
There will be no other SSJ. Its supercharged engine was only used on these two cars and temporarily on the one-off Special ordered by Ab Jenkins to race the land speed record in Bonneville.
Little used, Gary Cooper's SSJ has only 20,000 miles on the clock. It had only two owners since 1949, Briggs Cunningham and Miles Collier. Historian of automotive technology and tall ships, Collier wisely prefers to preserve the old cars rather than to restore them. This SSJ has kept intact its original chassis, engine and body and even has the canvas of its folding roof. It is estimated $ 10M for sale by Gooding at Pebble Beach on August 24, lot 35. Here is the link to the press release.
The car is driven and narrated by David Gooding in the videoshared by the auction house.
The brand's chief designer, J. Herbert Newport, plans to use on a shortened chassis the powerful Duesenberg Special 400 hp eight-cylinder in-line engine under development. The stars give their opinion. An enthusiast about luxury cars, Gary Cooper is appealed by the unprecedented performance of the future model but prefers that this roadster looks like a classic Duesenberg. Newport gives up the idea of a modernist body.
The two cars are provided to the actors in December 1935 for a long-term loan. Cooper's wife, Sandra Shaw, immediately has sent their car back to the factory for changing the color.
Six months later the two stars receive a proposal to buy their car at one-third the price of an ordinary Model J. Cooper accepts. Gable is not interested : he already owns one of the ten units of the Duesenberg JN also produced in 1935.
Cooper and Gable did not make the spectacular use that Cord was waiting for. We do not know when Cooper sold his car. Cord could have anticipated that it is not so easy to use the capricious Hollywood celebrities as advertising agents for luxury cars. Already in 1934 Mae West had refused the project of a SJ Town Car designed especially for her by Duesenberg.
There will be no other SSJ. Its supercharged engine was only used on these two cars and temporarily on the one-off Special ordered by Ab Jenkins to race the land speed record in Bonneville.
Little used, Gary Cooper's SSJ has only 20,000 miles on the clock. It had only two owners since 1949, Briggs Cunningham and Miles Collier. Historian of automotive technology and tall ships, Collier wisely prefers to preserve the old cars rather than to restore them. This SSJ has kept intact its original chassis, engine and body and even has the canvas of its folding roof. It is estimated $ 10M for sale by Gooding at Pebble Beach on August 24, lot 35. Here is the link to the press release.
The car is driven and narrated by David Gooding in the videoshared by the auction house.
1935 Marie-Thérèse is asleep again !
2011 SOLD 13.5 M£ including premium
The youth and innocence of Marie-Thérèse Walter had amazed Picasso. Her nude portraits, resting in an armchair or sleeping, painted in 1932 are an art of passion.
In the years that followed, the beautiful model is resting, reading or sleeping. Her own personality is eluded because she is never shown in activity. Unless her main quality, precisely, was to keep quiet even in the presence of the tireless Pablo.
Christie's sells in London on June 21 a Jeune fille endormie (asleep girl) signed on February 3, 1935. This small oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm, estimated £ 9M, is the achievement of the expression of feelings by bright colors, blue, yellow and red, as Matisse or Léger could also have done.
The face of Marie-Thérèse had for some time a trend to turn to blue sky. Here, it has several shades of rather dark blue, giving up the purity for the benefit of some maturity. Maya was born eight months later, on October 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
Honourable result for this Picasso painting which is not a major work of the artist: £ 13.5 million including premium.
The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use.
In the years that followed, the beautiful model is resting, reading or sleeping. Her own personality is eluded because she is never shown in activity. Unless her main quality, precisely, was to keep quiet even in the presence of the tireless Pablo.
Christie's sells in London on June 21 a Jeune fille endormie (asleep girl) signed on February 3, 1935. This small oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm, estimated £ 9M, is the achievement of the expression of feelings by bright colors, blue, yellow and red, as Matisse or Léger could also have done.
The face of Marie-Thérèse had for some time a trend to turn to blue sky. Here, it has several shades of rather dark blue, giving up the purity for the benefit of some maturity. Maya was born eight months later, on October 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
Honourable result for this Picasso painting which is not a major work of the artist: £ 13.5 million including premium.
The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use.
1935 Workmen in the House by Stanley Spencer
2011 SOLD for £ 4.7M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1935 Luxury and Sport by Mercedes-Benz
2016 SOLD for € 5.3M including premium
After an early great period around 1928 with its prestigious 680 S, Mercedes-Benz is positioning more firmly in the luxury car market in 1933 with the 380 and its variant named 380 K to indicate that it is super-compressed.
The German brand endeavors to appeal the elite. It will of course be lucky to meet the luxury trends of the new German regime but even in terms of an international perspective its initiative is timely. The Cord group fails to balance the budget of Duesenberg, Bugatti's La Royale is an almost total commercial failure and Bentley went bankrupt.
The Mercedes-Benz 380 can be bodied in limousine, coupe, cabriolet or roadster. It is heavy and sluggish. With a high intelligence Mercedes-Benz appreciates that the wealthiest customers shall prefer a bigger and more powerful car even if it is much more expensive. The 380 is terminated in mid-1934 to be replaced by the 500 and 500 K.
On September 3 in Chantilly, Bonhams sells a 500 K Roadster coachworked in Sindelfingen according to the practice of the company that unlike its competitors did not like subcontracting the body. Completed in February 1935, this car is then the high-end of the brand and is immediately exhibited at the Auto Show in Berlin. Remaining in very good condition with its matching number engine, it is estimated € 5M, lot 16.
I already met it in this column in 2011 when it was part of a tantalizing set of five vehicles demonstrating the dramatic progress of Mercedes-Benz into the later 1930s, with the 540 K introduced at the Salon de l'Auto of Paris in 1936 and the ultimate luxury, the 540 K Spezial launched in the same year, which will delight Göring.
In that sale made by RM Auctions on August 20, 2011, the 500 K Roadster was the earliest built of these five prestigious Mercedes-Benz and the only example in 500 K, the four others being 540 K. It was sold for $ 3.8M.
The other results were : $ 3M for a 1936 Cabriolet A, $ 3.1M for a 1936 Spezial Coupe, $ 9.7M for a 1937 Spezial Roadster and $ 4.6M for a Spezial Roadster from 1939 that was sold again for $ 7.5M by the same auction house in August 2013. These prices include the premium. The five cars were shown on the article shared by Sports Car Digest.
The German brand endeavors to appeal the elite. It will of course be lucky to meet the luxury trends of the new German regime but even in terms of an international perspective its initiative is timely. The Cord group fails to balance the budget of Duesenberg, Bugatti's La Royale is an almost total commercial failure and Bentley went bankrupt.
The Mercedes-Benz 380 can be bodied in limousine, coupe, cabriolet or roadster. It is heavy and sluggish. With a high intelligence Mercedes-Benz appreciates that the wealthiest customers shall prefer a bigger and more powerful car even if it is much more expensive. The 380 is terminated in mid-1934 to be replaced by the 500 and 500 K.
On September 3 in Chantilly, Bonhams sells a 500 K Roadster coachworked in Sindelfingen according to the practice of the company that unlike its competitors did not like subcontracting the body. Completed in February 1935, this car is then the high-end of the brand and is immediately exhibited at the Auto Show in Berlin. Remaining in very good condition with its matching number engine, it is estimated € 5M, lot 16.
I already met it in this column in 2011 when it was part of a tantalizing set of five vehicles demonstrating the dramatic progress of Mercedes-Benz into the later 1930s, with the 540 K introduced at the Salon de l'Auto of Paris in 1936 and the ultimate luxury, the 540 K Spezial launched in the same year, which will delight Göring.
In that sale made by RM Auctions on August 20, 2011, the 500 K Roadster was the earliest built of these five prestigious Mercedes-Benz and the only example in 500 K, the four others being 540 K. It was sold for $ 3.8M.
The other results were : $ 3M for a 1936 Cabriolet A, $ 3.1M for a 1936 Spezial Coupe, $ 9.7M for a 1937 Spezial Roadster and $ 4.6M for a Spezial Roadster from 1939 that was sold again for $ 7.5M by the same auction house in August 2013. These prices include the premium. The five cars were shown on the article shared by Sports Car Digest.
1935 The Culmination of Duesenberg
2013 SOLD 4.5 M$ including premium
Both from a technical and aesthetic point of view, cars are constantly changing throughout the 1930s. A brand that targets the absolute upscale must evolve its models continuously.
J. Herbert Newport is entrusted by Duesenberg to fit a modernized body on the model J chassis. His masterpiece is a convertible coupe with the top of the doors in alignment with the front and back covers.
Three cars were coachworked on this model by a workshop of Indianapolis, AH Walker Body Company, which seems to have worked primarily, or even exclusively, for the Cord group during its short period of activity. Walker was one of the craftsmen to whom Cord attributed the LaGrande label as a mark for their bodywork.
One of these three cars was mounted on the Duesenberg SJ variant with a supercharged engine. This specimen made in 1935 is thus representing the culmination of this prestigious brand. This car is estimated $ 3.5M, for sale on March 9 in Amelia Island by RM Auctions. Here is the link to the release shared by Sports Car Digest.
This unique Duesenberg SJ Walker-LaGrande convertible coupe must be placed in its historical chronology.
Duesenberg soon loses the game, not because of the design but by failing to change in due time the specifications of the chassis.
The market is caught by Mercedes-Benz with their new model 540K, offering of course a wide range of bodies. The masterpiece of Hermann Ahrens, the 540K Spezial Roadster, has the same styling as the Walker-LaGrande convertible coupe.
Which one had imitated the other? Note that the 540K Spezial Roadster of the Baroness von Krieger, sold for $ 11.8 million including premium by Gooding in August 2012, is dated 1936, one year after the Duesenberg Walker-LaGrande.
POST SALE COMMENT
This car is one of the most outstanding in the history of Duesenberg. It was sold for $ 4.1 million hammer price, 4.5 million including the 10% premium.
J. Herbert Newport is entrusted by Duesenberg to fit a modernized body on the model J chassis. His masterpiece is a convertible coupe with the top of the doors in alignment with the front and back covers.
Three cars were coachworked on this model by a workshop of Indianapolis, AH Walker Body Company, which seems to have worked primarily, or even exclusively, for the Cord group during its short period of activity. Walker was one of the craftsmen to whom Cord attributed the LaGrande label as a mark for their bodywork.
One of these three cars was mounted on the Duesenberg SJ variant with a supercharged engine. This specimen made in 1935 is thus representing the culmination of this prestigious brand. This car is estimated $ 3.5M, for sale on March 9 in Amelia Island by RM Auctions. Here is the link to the release shared by Sports Car Digest.
This unique Duesenberg SJ Walker-LaGrande convertible coupe must be placed in its historical chronology.
Duesenberg soon loses the game, not because of the design but by failing to change in due time the specifications of the chassis.
The market is caught by Mercedes-Benz with their new model 540K, offering of course a wide range of bodies. The masterpiece of Hermann Ahrens, the 540K Spezial Roadster, has the same styling as the Walker-LaGrande convertible coupe.
Which one had imitated the other? Note that the 540K Spezial Roadster of the Baroness von Krieger, sold for $ 11.8 million including premium by Gooding in August 2012, is dated 1936, one year after the Duesenberg Walker-LaGrande.
POST SALE COMMENT
This car is one of the most outstanding in the history of Duesenberg. It was sold for $ 4.1 million hammer price, 4.5 million including the 10% premium.
1935 A Duesenberg amidst the Thoroughbred
2015 SOLD for $ 3.6M including premium
The history of Duesenberg reached its peak in 1935, in a sort of rush to avoid the bankruptcy of the Cord group. Hollywood was escaping the crisis and brought customers for this high luxury car brand.
Duesenberg is still offering the Model J chassis that was the best in the world five years earlier. The novelty of this range of cars is the SJ model with a supercharged engine. The making of the bodies is scattered among many independent workshops but the trends are now offered by the new chief designer J. Herbert Newport.
The bodywork company of Walter Murphy in Pasadena benefits from its proximity to Hollywood. A Cord Town car coachworked by Murphy in 1930 was sold for $ 1.76M including premium by Bonhams on March 12, 2015.
Murphy closed in 1932. Their successor Bohman & Schwartz applied the recommendations of Newport. An elegant 1935 Duesenberg Town car equipped in SJ from factory is estimated $ 3.4M for sale without reserve by RM Sotheby's in Fort Worth TX on May 2, lot 231.
This car originally refused by Mae West was bought new by Ethel Mars, widow of the founder of the Mars Candy company, who used her great wealth to assemble the best American team of racing horses.
The 1935 Duesenberg coupe bodyworked by Walker LaGrande is another example of the beauty of the cars designed by Newport. The only SJ realized in this configuration was sold for $ 4.5 million including premium by RM on 9 March 2013.
Duesenberg is still offering the Model J chassis that was the best in the world five years earlier. The novelty of this range of cars is the SJ model with a supercharged engine. The making of the bodies is scattered among many independent workshops but the trends are now offered by the new chief designer J. Herbert Newport.
The bodywork company of Walter Murphy in Pasadena benefits from its proximity to Hollywood. A Cord Town car coachworked by Murphy in 1930 was sold for $ 1.76M including premium by Bonhams on March 12, 2015.
Murphy closed in 1932. Their successor Bohman & Schwartz applied the recommendations of Newport. An elegant 1935 Duesenberg Town car equipped in SJ from factory is estimated $ 3.4M for sale without reserve by RM Sotheby's in Fort Worth TX on May 2, lot 231.
This car originally refused by Mae West was bought new by Ethel Mars, widow of the founder of the Mars Candy company, who used her great wealth to assemble the best American team of racing horses.
The 1935 Duesenberg coupe bodyworked by Walker LaGrande is another example of the beauty of the cars designed by Newport. The only SJ realized in this configuration was sold for $ 4.5 million including premium by RM on 9 March 2013.
1935 Aston Martin Ulster LM
2015 SOLD for £ 2.9M including premium by Bonhams
narrated in 2017 before the sale of another car by Bonhams (see below)
Tempted by competition, Aston Martin releases in 1934 a new sports model based on its T-Type equipped with an 1.5 liters engine. The new two-seater car is spectacular with its elongated shape, its outer wheels and its length, 4.20 m.
Effective and robust, this model is named Ulster in reference to the very good participation of three cars of the brand at the Ulster Tourist Trophy in 1934. Within two years 31 Ulster cars are built by Aston Martin including 10 team cars entrusted to the official drivers of the factory.
In 1935 all efforts are focused on Le Mans where no less than seven Aston Martin are entered. One of them finished 10th in the race and 5th in her class, and no longer appeared in competition until the following year.
Also prepared for Le Mans in 1935, CML 721 is one of only four Ulster equipped in a specific LM (Le Mans) configuration which are considered as the culmination of the Aston Martin cars of the 1930s. Kept in matching numbers, it was sold for £ 2.9M including premium by Bonhams on June 26, 2015, lot 323.
Having retained its original chassis and engine as well as its registration number from 1935, CML 719 was sold for € 2M including premium by Bonhams on February 9, 2017. The Ulster that belonged to Prince Bira of Siam was sold for £ 1.58M including premium by Gooding on September 5, 2020.
This experience for the prestige did not clear the financial problems of the brand which will refocus from the following year on the production of its road models.
Effective and robust, this model is named Ulster in reference to the very good participation of three cars of the brand at the Ulster Tourist Trophy in 1934. Within two years 31 Ulster cars are built by Aston Martin including 10 team cars entrusted to the official drivers of the factory.
In 1935 all efforts are focused on Le Mans where no less than seven Aston Martin are entered. One of them finished 10th in the race and 5th in her class, and no longer appeared in competition until the following year.
Also prepared for Le Mans in 1935, CML 721 is one of only four Ulster equipped in a specific LM (Le Mans) configuration which are considered as the culmination of the Aston Martin cars of the 1930s. Kept in matching numbers, it was sold for £ 2.9M including premium by Bonhams on June 26, 2015, lot 323.
Having retained its original chassis and engine as well as its registration number from 1935, CML 719 was sold for € 2M including premium by Bonhams on February 9, 2017. The Ulster that belonged to Prince Bira of Siam was sold for £ 1.58M including premium by Gooding on September 5, 2020.
This experience for the prestige did not clear the financial problems of the brand which will refocus from the following year on the production of its road models.
1935 Minotauromachie by Picasso
May 2016 SOLD for $ 2.63M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020 before the sale of another copy by Phillips (see below)
Picasso can no longer maintain a balance in his sexual life. The artist tries to capture his feelings through the engraved image. Conceived in December 1934, the plate 97 of the Suite Vollard is a blind Minotaur guided by a young girl at night, a confrontation between the artist's sexual brutality and the lost innocence of his mistress Marie-Thérèse.
The situation worsens in 1935, which Picasso considered to be the worst time in his life. Marie-Thérèse is pregnant. Olga is upset. Picasso designs La Minotauromachie, one of his most complex compositions. He concentrates in a single image three ages of the woman and two ages of the man.
The most visible hero is the enormous mythological brute with the head of a bull on a human body, the Pablo of today. He has just defeated the pregnant woman, a dying torera on a gutted horse. In a theater box, two young women watch this weird corrida, with a remaining hope symbolized by two doves. The innocent little girl stops the bull with a light and a bouquet. The old man, Picasso tomorrow, flees on a ladder that leads to nothing.
La Minotauromachie is the most intimate work of Picasso's entire career, to which he devoted several working sessions in the workshop of the engraver Roger Lacourière. The final state is the seventh. Picasso intended these images to be presented to his best friends, away from the trade. The total quantity of this state probably exceeds 55 copies.
The copy numbered 2/50, image 50 x 69 cm printed at full margins on a 57 x 76 cm sheet size, was sold for $ 2.63M including premium by Christie's on May 12, 2016, lot 18C. The present discussion was prepared before another copy was sold for £ 975K including premium by Phillips on January 23, 2020.
The tragic characters of the Minotauromachie return two years later in Guernica, opening the way to a certainly erroneous interpretation according to which the Minotauromachy reflects Picasso's concerns about the political situation in Spain.
The situation worsens in 1935, which Picasso considered to be the worst time in his life. Marie-Thérèse is pregnant. Olga is upset. Picasso designs La Minotauromachie, one of his most complex compositions. He concentrates in a single image three ages of the woman and two ages of the man.
The most visible hero is the enormous mythological brute with the head of a bull on a human body, the Pablo of today. He has just defeated the pregnant woman, a dying torera on a gutted horse. In a theater box, two young women watch this weird corrida, with a remaining hope symbolized by two doves. The innocent little girl stops the bull with a light and a bouquet. The old man, Picasso tomorrow, flees on a ladder that leads to nothing.
La Minotauromachie is the most intimate work of Picasso's entire career, to which he devoted several working sessions in the workshop of the engraver Roger Lacourière. The final state is the seventh. Picasso intended these images to be presented to his best friends, away from the trade. The total quantity of this state probably exceeds 55 copies.
The copy numbered 2/50, image 50 x 69 cm printed at full margins on a 57 x 76 cm sheet size, was sold for $ 2.63M including premium by Christie's on May 12, 2016, lot 18C. The present discussion was prepared before another copy was sold for £ 975K including premium by Phillips on January 23, 2020.
The tragic characters of the Minotauromachie return two years later in Guernica, opening the way to a certainly erroneous interpretation according to which the Minotauromachy reflects Picasso's concerns about the political situation in Spain.
1935 Aston Martin Ulster
2020 SOLD for £ 1.58M including premium by Gooding
Link to pre sale press release.
1935 Aston Martin tempted by Le Mans
2017 SOLD for € 2M including premium
1935 Picasso in the Arena
2016 SOLD for $ 2.1M including premium by Christie's
2020 withdrawn
PRE 2020 SALE DISCUSSION
Picasso said it all and did it all. In his career which lasted three quarters of a century, he was the most prolific of artists. Yet his private life is a long series of secrets. We will never know why in 1901 he suddenly plunged into the blue period, nor why Guernica drifted onto the moral torture of Dora Maar personalizing war.
His meeting with Marie-Thérèse in 1927 is a triumph for his virility. He chooses a young woman by reference to a canon of beauty that will compete with Matisse's odalisques, he invites her to follow him and she gives herself to him lastingly. He is so proud that he portrays himself as a sexual bully, the Minotaur, from the early 1930s.
How did he come not to manage or even foresee what will happen next ? Marie-Thérèse is pregnant and Olga leaves him. At the beginning of 1935 he is so taken aback that he stops working.
His restart takes place in July 1935, by practicing copperplate engraving with Roger Lacourière. He must concentrate on mastering this technique, for which he designs an image that synthesizes his questioning on the three ages of life and on death. The monster has just entered the arena, but the little girl with the head of Marie-Thérèse exorcises him with the greatest calm, brandishing a candle and bringing a bouquet.
The final state of the Minotauromachie is the seventh, 50 x 69 cm on a 57 x 77 cm sheet. It is printed by Lacourière in 50 copies plus about 25 unnumbered artist's proofs of which Picasso will never dare to part, probably because for once he had revealed his most intimate feelings.
A full margin copy that had been part of his estate was sold for $ 2.1M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 1M by Christie's on November 16, 2016, lot 42 B, and is estimated $ 1.2M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on October 22, lot 33.
Picasso said it all and did it all. In his career which lasted three quarters of a century, he was the most prolific of artists. Yet his private life is a long series of secrets. We will never know why in 1901 he suddenly plunged into the blue period, nor why Guernica drifted onto the moral torture of Dora Maar personalizing war.
His meeting with Marie-Thérèse in 1927 is a triumph for his virility. He chooses a young woman by reference to a canon of beauty that will compete with Matisse's odalisques, he invites her to follow him and she gives herself to him lastingly. He is so proud that he portrays himself as a sexual bully, the Minotaur, from the early 1930s.
How did he come not to manage or even foresee what will happen next ? Marie-Thérèse is pregnant and Olga leaves him. At the beginning of 1935 he is so taken aback that he stops working.
His restart takes place in July 1935, by practicing copperplate engraving with Roger Lacourière. He must concentrate on mastering this technique, for which he designs an image that synthesizes his questioning on the three ages of life and on death. The monster has just entered the arena, but the little girl with the head of Marie-Thérèse exorcises him with the greatest calm, brandishing a candle and bringing a bouquet.
The final state of the Minotauromachie is the seventh, 50 x 69 cm on a 57 x 77 cm sheet. It is printed by Lacourière in 50 copies plus about 25 unnumbered artist's proofs of which Picasso will never dare to part, probably because for once he had revealed his most intimate feelings.
A full margin copy that had been part of his estate was sold for $ 2.1M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 1M by Christie's on November 16, 2016, lot 42 B, and is estimated $ 1.2M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on October 22, lot 33.
