Picasso early painting with hidden patron portrait unveiled

London (CNA).- ‘La Gommeuse', a portrait of a naked Parisian woman with a flower in her hair and a small red scarf around her neck has been presented this Friday in London for the first time in 30 years. Picasso painted it 1901, when he was only 20 years old, and belongs to what is known as the ‘blue period’. By that time, the artist was living in Paris with his friend and patron Pere Mañach, whom is actually painted on the reverse of the canvas. This unusual fact was discovered only 15 years ago. ‘La Gommeuse’ will be auctioned on the 3^rd of November at Sotheby's New York with a starting price of $60 million.

The Malaga-born artist painted ‘La Gommeuse' when he was only 20 years, during his' blue period', which was between 1901 and 1904 and has its origin in the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. Apart from the figure of a naked Parisian woman, there can be seen for the first time a picture on the back of the canvas of Peter Mañach, Picasso’s friend and patron, with the inscription "Recuerdo a Manach en el dia de su santo”. ‘La Gommeuse ‘ will be exhibited at Sotheby's in London until the 15^th of October before being put on the auction block in New York on the 3rd of November this year.

There will also be auctioned Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé’, painted in April of 1889 at the height of the artist’s famed Arles period, one year before his death. The painting is a depiction of the fields outside Arles, in the south of France, where he lived form early 1888 through mid-1889. The starting price is between 50 and 70 million dollars and will also be auctioned on the 5^th of November in New York. In addition, Claude Monet’s ‘Nymphéas’ will be auctioned in the same city. Other artworks of great artists such as Andy Warhol, Paulo Scheggi and Lucio Fontana are also going to go under the hammer.