Maya, Marie-Thérèse and Dora

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Whom did Maya Picasso, the daughter of Pablo, look like? Like her mother, of course, Marie-Thérèse Walter.

In 1938, just some months after Guernica, Maya, aged two and a half years, brings joy to her father. He retained all his life this portrait he did of her, and which is now at Sotheby's in New York on May 5.

At that time, Picasso destructures faces, to provide juxtaposed front and profile visions in the frame of the head. It is the culmination of his research on third dimension and presence on a two-dimensional surface. The simple and clear lines make these portraits disturbing, and it is through them that Picasso was the most known to the general public. The rest of the body and environment are more traditional.

In this sense, our portrait of Maya has many commonalities with Dora Maar au Chat (1941), which has amazed the world of auctions with a result at $ 95 millions charge included at Sotheby's in New York on 3 May 2006.

Both models are sitting, each with an added-on "object": the cat for Dora, a toy boat for Maya. Maya is heightened by bright yellow spots that Dora does not have. Both look to the artist: Maya with a little childish smile, Dora quieter.

Maya will not reach the price of Dora. It is smaller: 73 x 54 cm, compared to 130 x 97 cm for Dora. Its estimated value of $ 16 million seems almost reasonable.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

In this spring 2009, $ 16 millions are too much money to buyers of art. The portrait of Maya has not been sold.

Le Chat, a bronze of Giacometti which had the same estimation, was not sold either (but in this case, I did not understand why the estimate was so high).