Picasso's Portrait of Dora Maar Heads to Sotheby's Hong Kong Auction

A 1939 portrait of Dora Maar by Pablo Picasso will be the highlight of Sotheby's Modern Evening Auction in Hong Kong on April 27. The painting, with a starting price of $17.6 million, depicts Maar in a pensive pose with her head resting on her hand. Picasso and Maar met in 1936 and had a turbulent intellectual and romantic relationship that influenced his work. Maar, a French photographer, poet, and painter of Croatian origin, was a key figure in Surrealism and documented the creation of Picasso's masterpiece Guernica. Their relationship lasted until 1943. Sotheby's Felix Kwok noted that the portrait, painted in the French tricolor and prominently signed and dated, captures Maar's personality and Picasso's feelings. Interest in Picasso has grown among Asian collectors, with two consecutive auction records for the artist in Asia last year, including a portrait of his second wife Jacqueline Roque. This work is described as museum-quality and among the best offered in the region.