Picasso's »La fenêtre ouverte« for the first time at auction

Pablo Picasso's surrealist masterpiece »La fenêtre ouverte« (1929) will be presented at auction for the first time ever in March. The seminal painting from the artist's Surrealist period is estimated at £14,000,000-24,000,000 (equivalent to around €16,750,400 - €28,715,000) and is the highlight of the 21st edition of Christie's The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale. The edition is embedded in the auction series 20/21 Shanghai to London, which will take place on March 1, 2022 and is organized by the traditional auction house Christie's. Picasso's »La fenêtre ouverte« will be on view in New York from February 4-8, 2022, and in Hong Kong from February 15-17, 2022, before being exhibited in London from February 23-March 1, 2022, and subsequently auctioned.

The painting »La fenêtre ouverte« has been in the same European collection for half a century and is a surreal representation of Picasso and his great muse Marie-Thérèse Walter. It is rich in personal and artistic symbolism. With its impressive size, the work is rendered with a bold color palette and direct handling, possessing a striking visual power. Painted in November 1929, this complex and compelling studio scene is one of a series of studio works that Picasso had already begun around 1926. Olivier Camu, Vice Chairman of Impressionism and Modern Art at Christie's is quoted as saying on the auction house's website, »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. [...] 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. [...]«