Pablo Picasso’s Painting ‘Woman With a Watch’ is Sold for $139m at New York Auction

A 1932 Pablo Picasso painting titled  ‘Woman With a Watch’ has been sold for $139m. 

According to Sotheby’s it is the second highest price achieved for the artist. 

In a packed auction house, the painting just required a few minutes of telephone bidding for it to be sold. 

The woman in this painting is French Model Marie-Therese Walter, who is also the artist’s lover. Marie-Therese Walter has been the subject of many of his creative paintings. 

In this work of art, the muse is seen seated in a throne-like chair against a blue background. 

The painting was initially owned by late art collector Emily Fisher Landau who bought it in 1968 and later it was purchased by an anonymous buyer. 

Picasso's most expensive painting to sell at an auction was Les Femmes d'Alger (Women of Algiers), which fetched $179.3m at Christie's in 2015.

Pablo Picasso spent most of his adult life in France. He was the founder of constructed sculpture and many other styles of painting. 

He exhibited extraordinary artistic talent in his early years and adolescence. The Spanish painter experimented with various techniques and ideas. 

According to his mother, Pablo was very good at drawing since childhood. 

His work has been categorized into different periods such as the Blue Period, Rose Period, the African-influenced Period, Analytic Cubism and Crystal Period. 

The prolific painter became one of the best known figures of the 20th century and came to be known as a creative genius. That said, he garnered a reputation of being violent with the women in his life. The women in his life acted as muses for his creative expression in his paintings.