Life

Early Picasso masterpiece priced at £30m-£40m

19.03.2010
A celebrated masterpiece from Pablo Picasso’s early years will be auctioned by Christie’s in June.

Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto (1903) comes from Picasso’s celebrated Blue Period, when the artist was in his early 20s.

Sitting with his glass of absinthe and his pipe, the smoke curling upwards, Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto is the very embodiment of Blue Period aesthetic, rendered in bold, loose, swirling brushstrokes that recall El Greco.

The painting will be priced at between £30m - £40m, with the proceeds from the sale going to the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, a charity founded by the UK composer in 1992.

Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto was due to be sold at Christie’s in New York in 2006 but was withdrawn from the auction at the request of the vendor after an 11th-hour ownership challenge based on a sale of the painting in the 1930s. However, all claims to the painting have since been withdrawn, leaving the Foundation free to sell the work.

“This is one of the most important works of art to be offered at auction in decades, and the opportunity to acquire such a masterpiece of 20th-century art is sure to prompt great excitement amongst collectors and institutions around the world,” said Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

“These Blue Period paintings by Picasso paved the way for all the great modernist movements of the 20th century. Consequently it is a painting which has the broadest possible appeal and could find its proper place in any major museum or private collection,” Pylkkänen added.

Angel Fernandez de Soto’s backstory
Picasso met Angel Fernandez de Soto in 1899 at the famous café Els 4 Gats in Barcelona, a celebrated artists’ gathering place. He was immediately drawn to de Soto’s natural stylishness, and the pair reportedly became inseparable dandies - owning only one pair of gloves between them, they would wear one each and keep their other hand hidden.

De Soto and his brother Mateu were both artists. While Mateu was a gifted sculptor, Picasso referred to Angel, a painter, as an ‘amusing wastrel.’

This penchant for partying, which would distract Picasso so much that he moved to another studio, is discreetly evident in this contemplative portrait. De Soto is shown with a glass of absinthe, the drink espoused by so many of the celebrated creative minds of the Belle Epoque including Picasso’s own hero Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as artists and writers such as Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.