Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Anchored by Picasso Painting, Sotheby’s Adds December Evening Sale to End Fall Season

November 18, 2020 by Angelica Villa

Pablo Picasso, Buste De Femme Assise (1962)
Courtesy Sotheby’s.

Following a night of sales that generated a collective $283 million on October 28, Sotheby’s has added a final evening sale to its fall calendar. The cross-category auction, which will include Impressionist, modern, and contemporary works, will take place on December 8 and will be live-streamed from the house’s New York headquarters. Bids will come in from specialists in New York, London, and Hong Kong, as well through the house’s online platforms.

Leading the sale will be Pablo Picasso’s 1962 painting Buste de Femme Assise. Expected to fetch a price between $8 million–$12 million, the portrait depicts the artist’s second wife and last muse, Jacqueline Roque, a woman more than 40 years his junior, whom he married the year before the painting was made and remained with until his death in 1973. In 1986, Roque died by suicide.

Elsewhere in the sale works by Chaim Soutine, Jean Dubuffet, and Glenn Ligon will go on offer, though Sotheby’s has not released full details on those works.

Paintings of Picasso’s various confidantes—among them Dora Maar and Marie-Thérèse Walter—are a fixture in modern art evening sales. While less common at auction, Picasso created more images of his last wife in his mature period than any other woman in his orbit.

The Picasso headed to auction depicts Roque as though seen from multiple perspectives at once. Other major Picasso works featuring Roque include Jacqueline avec une Écharpe Noire (1954), which shows her wearing a black scarf, believed to be inspired by El Greco’s Lady in a Fur Wrap.

The last major exhibition devoted to Roque’s presence in Picasso’s work was in 2014 at New York’s Pace Gallery titled “Picasso and Jacqueline: The Evolution of Style,” Before that, an exhibition devoted to the final muse was held in 2006, at the Kunst Museum Pablo Picasso in Germany. In 2019, another depiction of Jacqueline Roque titled Femme au chien (1962) sold at Sotheby’s for $54.9 million, more than double its low estimate of $25 million.

Sotheby’s is the last of its competitors to announce an additional hybrid evening sale event. Earlier this month, Christie’s announced plans to hold another relay-style auction, with proceedings taking place in Hong Kong and New York on December 2; Phillips will host its New York evening sale on December 7.

Changes in the auction world in the last several months, including the live-broadcast global evening sale format and restructuring of the sale schedule are now the industry’s norm. “We are continuing to rethink not only the traditional auction calendar, but also the ways in which our sales are organized and categorized,” Amy Cappellazzo, chairman of Sotheby’s Fine Art Division, said in a statement. “Collectors continue to be less concerned with the traditional art market categories of the past.”

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Sotheby’s In the Cold Light of DaySotheby’s In the Cold Light of Day
  • Would You Believe It? Artnet Says 2015 Is a Recessionary Year So Far for the Global Art MarketWould You Believe It? Artnet Says 2015 Is a Recessionary Year So Far for the Global Art Market
  • Classic Cars Off by ~40% at Pebble BeachClassic Cars Off by ~40% at Pebble Beach
  • 'How Do You Position an Art Fair in Africa?''How Do You Position an Art Fair in Africa?'
  • Sotheby's OM Highlights (July 2010)Sotheby's OM Highlights (July 2010)
  • Flam Says Freedman Didn’t Want to Hear the TruthFlam Says Freedman Didn’t Want to Hear the Truth

Filed Under: General

About Angelica Villa

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • A Season of Improvisation: Fall 2020 New York Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Analysis
  • After Pandemic’s Rapid Change, Sotheby’s Has 8 Predictions for 2021
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Login
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Aboudia, Zemba Luzamba, Dickens Otieno Anchor Contemporary African Art Sale at Artcurial in Marrakesh
  • Selection Bias In Art Is What Creates Value
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor