Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
1932: the year Picasso reinvented himself — and revealed his secret muse.
After three decades of creative output, the artist held his first career-spanning retrospective at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. Among the most significant works on view was 'La Lecture', an adoring portrait of Picasso's new muse and lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter.
The soft pastel tones of Marie-Therese's face and body are set against a richly textured black backdrop. Her downcast eyes resemble crescent moons, her mind absorbed in the reading of a book in her lap. It is as if she, along with the viewer, has been transported to another realm.
Remembering the fateful day he first saw her, Picasso later remarked: 'The day I met Marie-Thérèse I realised that I had before me what I had always been dreaming about.'
In this gallery talk with Imogen Kerr, Co-Head of the 20th Century Evening Sale, discover the muse of Picasso's dreams in this masterpiece from the Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis Collection.
🔗 Learn more at the link: christies.com/en/events/robert-and-patricia-ross-weis-collection?cid=EM_SM_O_YT_Inc_CON____________
📆 20th Century Evening Sale | New York | 17 November
1932: the year Picasso reinvented himself — and revealed his secret muse.
After three decades of creative output, the artist held his first career-spanning retrospective at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. Among the most significant works on view was 'La Lecture', an adoring portrait of Picasso's new muse and lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter.
The soft pastel tones of Marie-Therese's face and body are set against a richly textured black backdrop. Her downcast eyes resemble crescent moons, her mind absorbed in the reading of a book in her lap. It is as if she, along with the viewer, has been transported to another realm.
Remembering the fateful day he first saw her, Picasso later remarked: 'The day I met Marie-Thérèse I realised that I had before me what I had always been dreaming about.'
In this gallery talk with Imogen Kerr, Co-Head of the 20th Century Evening Sale, discover the muse of Picasso's dreams in this masterpiece from the Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis Collection.
🔗 Learn more at the link: christies.com/en/events/robert-and-patricia-ross-weis-collection?cid=EM_SM_O_YT_Inc_CON____________
📆 20th Century Evening Sale | New York | 17 November
