“Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)”, a 1943 oil on canvas by Pablo Picasso, realized €32,012,397 (approximately $37 million) at Drouot auction house on Friday, surpassing pre-sale estimates and marking the highest price achieved for any artwork in France during 2025. The portrait, unseen in public since its acquisition in 1944, had remained in the same family collection for 81 years, known only through a single black-and-white photograph until its recent consignment.

Painted in July 1943, the work belongs to Picasso’s celebrated “Woman in a Hat” series and captures Dora Maar – the artist’s partner, intellectual collaborator, and primary muse from 1936 to 1943 – at the emotional terminus of their relationship. Maar, a distinguished photographer and painter in her own right, appears seated in profile, her face rendered with angular precision and intense psychological depth. A vibrant floral hat dominates the composition, its saturated hues of emerald, coral, and indigo contrasting sharply with the somber expression in her eyes. Auctioneer Christophe Lucien described the canvas as “a document of love’s dissolution”, noting the visible restraint in Maar’s posture as she confronted Picasso’s impending departure for Françoise Gilot.

The painting’s exceptional condition drew widespread attention from specialists. Agnès Sevestre-Barbé, a leading Picasso authority, emphasized during pre-sale viewings that the work has never been varnished or relined, preserving the original matte surface and full chromatic intensity exactly as it left the artist’s studio in occupied Paris. The absence of restoration allows viewers to observe every brushstroke, impasto layer, and pigment particle in their pristine state, offering an unparalleled window into Picasso’s technical mastery during the wartime period. The canvas measures 73 x 60 cm and retains its original stretcher and handwritten inventory markings on the reverse.

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Bidding commenced at €18 million and escalated rapidly, with seven active participants including representatives from North America, Asia, and Europe. The hammer fell at €27 million after six minutes of competition, with the final price reflecting the addition of buyer’s premium. The identity of the successful bidder – a private European collector present in the saleroom – has not been disclosed. The result significantly exceeded the €20–25 million estimate but remains below Picasso’s auction benchmarks, such as “Femme à la montre” ($139.4 million, 2023) and “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)” ($179.4 million, 2015).

Dora Maar met Picasso in 1936 at Café Les Deux Magots and quickly became the central figure in his oeuvre, most famously as the weeping protagonist of “Guernica” (1937). Their partnership, marked by creative collaboration and emotional volatility, ended in 1944 when Picasso began his relationship with Gilot. Maar withdrew increasingly from public life, residing in Paris and Provence until her death in 1997 at age 89. The newly sold portrait represents the last major canvas she sat for, encapsulating both Picasso’s genius and the personal cost of inspiring it. Its re-emergence after eight decades underscores the enduring market demand for museum-quality works from this pivotal chapter in 20th-century art history.

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