Tête de Femme (Fernande), a 1909 cast of a Pablo Picasso sculpture will be offered as a leading highlight of the 20th Century Art Evening Sale this coming May at Christie’s. Considered the first Cubist sculpture by the Spanish master, the work is a study of his lover Fernande Olivier synthesized into three-dimensional form.
“Tête de femme (Fernande) is Cubism’s definitive early sculpture. Its revolutionary architectural faceting, which Picasso sliced and sharpened after modeling in clay, suggests Vesalius as much as it does Frank Gehry.” explained in a press release, Max Carter, head of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art department.
The bronze sculpture had been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1995. Christie’s estimates that the sculpture will fetch around $30 million, with the proceeds going to fund new additions to the Met’s collection. Any takers for this piece of art history?
