Picasso’s La Gommeuse (1901) is one of only four Blue Period paintings to come to auction in the past 28 years, but its reverse offers a rarer sight. On the back of the erotically charged picture of a cabaret dancer, painted when Picasso was 19 years old, is a portrait of the artist’s flatmate Pere Mañach. According to the inscription, the work appears to have been a gift, but Picasso pokes fun at his friend by depicting him with a woman’s body, urinating among some flowers. “In terms of its value, the painting of Mañach isn’t as important as the front,” says Helena Newman, the chair of Impressionist and Modern art for Sotheby’s in Europe (La Gommeuse is estimated to sell for in excess of $60m). “But it gives a glimpse of the Picasso behind Picasso, it’s like looking over his shoulder.” The sketch was discovered in 2000 when its present owner, the US billionaire Bill Koch, was restoring the painting and the lining was removed.
Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale, Sotheby’s, New York
5 November
