Etchings of Picasso’s turmoil sell for R31m

A SERIES of 100 etchings by Picasso, which depict his personal and political turmoil in the 1930s, has sold for ß1.9-million (R31-million) in Paris.

The Spanish-born artist took seven years to complete the prints, the Vollard Suite, which deal with his erotic obsessions and marital strife as well as the gathering storm clouds of war over Europe.

The hammer came down on the prints late on Sunday as part of a weekend of sales in the French capital from the collection of art dealer Henri Petiet.

Some 622 lots were sold for ß3.3-million (R54-million), which the auction house Ader Nordmann called an enormous success.

It said the Picasso series was bought by an unnamed American collector.

Civil war erupted in Picasso’s homeland as he was working on the series, leaving his alter ego in the drawings -- the minotaur -- lost and blind by the end.

Picasso’s technique also developed greatly over the years from his relatively simple early prints of his voluptuous mistress Marie-Therese Walter in the arms of a bearded sculptor, to the darker, later pictures where she leads a blind, impotent minotaur by night.

The final three prints are portraits of the French art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who commissioned the series in 1930, giving Picasso paintings by Renoir and Cezanne in exchange.

Among the other works in the sale were Renoir’s lithography Pinning the hat, which went for ß43 000 (R704 800) -double its estimation – as did Toulouse- Lautrec’s The jockey, which sold for ß40 000 (R665 800).

No telephone or online bidding was allowed. – AFP