Pablo Picasso - Les Femmes d'Alger. Women of Algiers. 'Version O' 1955
Les Femmes d'Alger. Women of Algiers. Version O 1955
114x146cm oil on canvas
Sold for: USD 179.4 million
Auction house: Christie's, New York.
Sale date: May 11, 2015
Seller: Private collection
Buyer: Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, Doha, Qatar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
In December 1954, Picasso began to paint a series of free variations on Delacroix's The Women of Algiers in their Apartment (Les Femmes d'Alger). He began his first version six weeks after learning of the death of his lifelong friend and rival Henri Matisse — and so, for Picasso, the "oriental" subject of this series of paintings held strong associations with Matisse as well as with Delacroix. Matisse had been famous for his images of languid, voluptuous women known as odalisques — the French form of the Turkish word for women in a harem. "When Matisse died he left his odalisques to me as a legacy," joked Picasso. Many of Picasso's portrayals of Jacqueline circa 1955–56 represent her in this guise .