Christie’s announces a special highlight of its Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 4 May: Les enfants et les jouets, an extraordinary work by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painted in the spring of 1901 when the artist was only 19 years old and in his first flush of commercial success. The subject is among the earliest and most elaborate of the artist’s depictions of small children to be finished as a full-fledged oil painting.
Estimated at US$ 5.5 – 7.5 million, this brilliantly painted work is the second major oil from this early period in Picasso’s career to reach the auction block this year. In February, Christie’s London fetched US$ 7.8 million (£4.9 million) for the artist’s Sur l'impériale traversant la Seine, a 1901 painting consigned from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Both paintings are among an important group of works Picasso created in a flurry of creative inspiration as he adjusted to life in Paris and prepared for his first major exhibition at the gallery of the influential Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard.
Les enfants et les jouets comes to auction from a distinguished European collector, whose family has owned the painting since circa 1960. The work will be exhibited to the public for the first time at Christie’s London from April 16-19 and again at Christie’s New York from April 29 – May 4, according to artdaily.
