Picasso, masterpiece from the Stella collection on sale at Christie's New York

It is a masterpiece that it remained in a private and important collection of the Stella family for three generations since 1957 – just two years after its creation. The work was originally acquired by a collector who has developed personal relationships with leading contemporary artists since the 50s. The collection includes works by Picasso, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque and Max Ernst, among others, which were acquired directly from the artists or through the most important gallery owners of the time such as Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Galerie Maeght , and subsequently kept in the same family for three generations.

The portrait of Picasso depicts Jacqueline Roque, the last great love and muse of the artist's life. It is among the most radical representations of a major series of eleven seated portraits of Jacqueline that developed from Picasso's landmark series, Les femmes d'Alger (based on Delacroix's masterpiece of the same name), considered his single greatest success since World War II. Here his new muse has been transformed into a majestically seated odalisque, rendered in an elaborate jewel-like combination of line, pattern and colour. Nodding to his friend and rival Henri Matisse, who had died just a year earlier in 1954, Picasso approaches the canvas in a Matissean style, employing costumes and decorations as a way to evoke the seductive fantasy of Orientalism.

Femme accroupie en turkish costume (Jacqueline) it was painted in Picasso's new home, the spacious XNUMXth-century mansion known as La Californie, which overlooked Cannes. At the time, Picasso's fame was such that he could not move around Paris without attracting crowds. Picasso met Jacqueline for the first time in 1952. she At the time he was still living with Françoise Gilot; She jacqueline worked as a sales assistant in a ceramic studio where she often worked. By 1954, Picasso's relationship with Françoise had ended and the two were a couple. They will remain together until the artist's death at the age of 91.

Other works present in the same auction are: Le serpent glisse vers l'azur parsemé des flèches, 1954 by Joan Miro (Estimate: $1.000.000-1.500.000) in Marc Chagall's Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale and Autoportrait, 1940 (Estimate: $500.000-700.000), a highlight of the sale of impressionist and modern works on paper. Both works arise from a direct relationship with the artists. In particular, the collector's close friendship with Chagall stimulated his involvement in organizing the artist's contribution to Lincoln Center in New York and the Vatican in Rome, and he played a very active role in the creation of the Chagall museum in Nice, in France.