A SENSUAL 1932 PORTRAIT BY PABLO PICASSO OF HIS YOUNG MISTRESS MARIE-THERESE WALTER WHICH CAPTURES HIS ROMANTIC OBSESSION WITH HER WENT ON DISPLAY RECENTLY AT SOTHEBY'S IN PARIS, AHEAD OF ITS AUCTION NEXT MONTH. IT WAS THE FIRST PUBLIC SHOWING IN EUROPE IN SOME 80 YEARS OF 'LA LECTURE', OR 'READING', AN EROTIC AND BRIGHTLY COLOURED DEPICTION OF THE VOLUPTUOUS MARIE-THERESE SLEEPING NUDE IN AN ARMCHAIR, HER HEAD THROWN BACK AND AN OPEN BOOK IN HER LAP. PAINTED IN BRIGHT YELLOW, GREEN AND RED OILS AT THE HEIGHT OF WHAT ART EXPERTS CALL PICASSO'S 'LOVESTRUCK' PERIOD, IT WILL BE THE STAR OFFERING AT AN UPCOMING SALE OF IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART BY SOTHEBY'S LONDON. EXPERTS SAY THE PAINTING COULD FETCH BETWEEN $19-29 MILLION AFTER ANOTHER PICASSO PORTRAIT OF MARIE-THERESE, 'NUDE, GREEN LEAVES AND BUST', WAS SOLD BY CHRISTIE'S, NEW YORK, FOR $106 MILLION IN 2010, AN ALL TIME RECORD FOR AN ART AUCTION. 'IN THE EARLY 1930s HE WAS VERY LYRICALLY IN LOVE AND REFLECTED THAT IN THESE GORGEOUS COLOURS, AND LOVELY COMPOSITION', PHILIP HOOK, DIRECTOR OF IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN PICTURE DEPARTMENT AT SOTHEBY'S IN LONDON TOLD REUTERS IN A RECENT INTERVIEW. 'THIS PERIOD IS JUST ABOUT THE MOST DESIRABLE OF ALL PICASSO'S PERIODS, CERTAINLY IN MARKET TERMS', HE SAID. MARIE-THERESE WAS ONE OF A SERIES OF LOVERS AND MUSES WHO INSPIRED PICASSO THROUGHOUT HIS PROLIFIC EIGHT-DECADE CAREER. SHE FIRST CAUGHT HIS EYE IN 1927, AGED JUST 17, AS SHE WAS COMING OUT OF THE PARIS METRO ON HER BACK FROM A SHOPPING TRIP. PICASSO, IN HIS MID-FORTIES, WAS IMMEDIATELY SMITTEN. MARIE-THERESE LATER SAID HE TOOK HER BY THE ARM AND SAID: 'I AM PICASSO. YOU AND I ARE GOING TO GREAT THINGS TOGETHER.' ALTHOUGH STILL MARRIED TO HIS FIRST WIFE, RUSSIAN DANCER OLGA KHOKHLOVA, PICASSO BEGAN A COVERT AFFAIR WITH MARIE-THERESE, WHO LATER GAVE BIRTH TO THEIR DAUGHTER, MAYA OR MARIA DE LA CONCEPCION.
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