Property from the Collection of Mrs. Otto Preminger The name Otto Preminger usually prompts images of a strong-willed and sometimes controversial film director. As with most stereotypes there was much more to the man. True, my father was a film producer and director, but what only his closest friends and family knew, was his generosity of spirit, his great love of good food, good wine, and above all good art. He loved the bounties of life, not as possessions but for their intrinsic beauty. At an early age, my father introduced me to museums and art galleries around the world. Although we did not always see eye to eye when it came to art, he taught me to appreciate and value different artistic aesthetics. I learned to love not only the final result of artistic creation but the creative process itself. We traveled extensively during my early childhood. My mother, brother and I went to film locations around the world with my father as he shot films such as The Cardinal, In Harm's Way, and Advise and Consent. He would take us to the museums of Paris, Rome and London; I was mesmerized by the Chagall stained glass at the Galerie Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and adored our Saturday afternoons in New York at the Museum of Modern Art or walking up and down Madison Avenue looking in the galleries. The walls of our townhouse were filled with my father's collection. Over the years the art became part of the family. As in any family, there were bound to be mishaps: like the time my father let the bathtub overflow and a soggy ceiling collapsed above a large Miró hanging in the living room below, or when a precariously balanced Calder mobile kept getting knocked over and reassembled before my father came home. Then there was the Kandinsky [see lot 4 in Christie's Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art, 8 November 2006]. In 1974, it was stolen from my father's Fifth Avenue office. I remember the excitement and intrigue the incident conjured as detectives arrived at our home and Interpol tapped our phones. The drama ended somewhat anticlimactically however when it was found in a gallery in Switzerland and returned without incident. This fortunate childhood lead to what would be for me a lifelong love of art. I studied art history at Smith College and later art law when attending law school. Whether fortunate enough to own great artworks or simply afforded the opportunity to view them, the exposure to art is one of the greatest gifts a parent can impart. For that, I thank my father very much. Victoria Preminger BARCODE: 24758284

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Etude pour La soupe

細節

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Etude pour La soupe
signed 'Picasso' (lower left)
pencil on paper
18 x 24 1/8 in. (45.7 x 61.2 cm.)
Drawn circa 1902

拍場告示

Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

Maya Widmaier-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

拍品專文

The present drawing is a related study for Picasso's La soupe (fig. 1), painted in Barcelona in 1903 (Zervos, vol. I, no. 131; coll. Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada). In the autumn of 1902, Picasso embarked upon his third journey to Paris, a period that was characterized by extreme emotional and financial strain. As his funds were limited, Picasso worked on paper rather than canvas, resulting in many interesting and emotionally-charged drawings. Palau i Fabre attests this stay was "one of the hardest periods in Picasso's life, perhaps the hardest of all...a parenthesis within the major unit of the Blue Period" (Picasso: The Early Years, New York, 1980, p. 314). This drawing was probably inspired by a scene he observed on the rue de Seine during the extremely cold winter where the temperatures dropped below zero. In this study, the emaciated male figure is seen carrying a bowl of warm sustenance, likely soup, to a woman holding an infant. The woman's breast is exposed, possibly suggesting her inability to feed her child, while a street dog jumps up toward the bowl further implying the grim circumstances. In the series of studies that culminate in La soupe (Palau i Fabre nos. 817-822) Picasso begins with the male figure carrying the soup and slowly scratches his face out and morphs the figure into a female carrying the bowl toward two small children. In the realization of the painting La soupe, Picasso has imbued his characteristic Blue period style, simplified the forms of the figures and created a classical composition of a mother kneeling toward her child, both with arms outstretched.

(fig. 1) La soupe, 1903, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada.
BARCODE: 23662261