| Nude, Green Leaves and Bust | |
|---|---|
| French:Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur | |
 | |
| Artist | Pablo Picasso |
| Year | 1932 (1932) |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 162 cm × 130 cm (64 in × 51 in) |
| Location | Private collection (Currently on long-term loan toTate Modern) |
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (French:Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur) is a 1932 oil on canvas painting byPablo Picasso, featuring his mistressMarie-Thérèse Walter.
The painting was in the personal collection ofLos Angeles art collectors Sidney andFrances Brody for nearly six decades. It sold at auction for US$106.5 million, the third highest price for a piece of artwork sold at auction at the time.[1]
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust is one of a series of portraits that Picasso painted of his mistress and museMarie-Thérèse Walter from 1932. The vibrant blue and lilac canvas is more than 5 feet (1.5 m) tall.
At the time, Picasso was in an exclusive contractual relationship with noted impressionist and post-impressionist French-Jewishart dealerPaul Rosenberg, who bought the painting direct from his friend. With the increasing tones of an approaching war, in the late 1930s Rosenberg started to distribute works from his 2,000+ piece collection around the world, and used the1939 New York World's Fair as the excuse to ship the painting outsideFrance. After the 1940Nazi invasion of France, on reaching New York viaLisbon in September 1940, Rosenberg opened a new branch of his noted gallery on East 57th street and put the painting back on display.
From there it was bought by the Brodys in 1951, and was publicly exhibited only once in 1961, to commemorate Picasso's 80th birthday.[2][3]
Frances Brody died in November 2009. On May 4, 2010, the painting was sold atChristie's inNew York City, which won the rights to auction the collection against London-basedSotheby's. The collection as a whole was valued at over $150 million, while the work was originally expected to earn $80 million at auction.[4]
Eight bidders were at the auction house, while the winning bid was taken via telephone for$95 million.[3] Including thebuyer's premium, the price reached $106.5 million.[5] When inflation is ignored, the painting broke the record price for an artwork sold at auction until it was surpassed by the selling ofThe Scream on May 2, 2012, for $120 million.[6]