'A milestone': auctioneer unveils Picasso not seen for 80 years

A Pablo Picasso painting not shown since he completed it during the Nazi occupation of Paris was unveiled by an auction house yesterday.

- Kim Willsher

Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat (Dora Maar) was finished near the end of his turbulent relationship with Maar and shows her in a softer, more colourful light than usual.

Picasso made many paintings of the French photographer and artist, including the celebrated Portrait of Dora Maar in 1937 and Dora Maar au Chat in 1941.

But she said of them: “All of his portraits of me are lies. They’re all Picassos. Not one is Dora Maar.”

The couple met at the end of 1935 when she was taking photographs to promote Jean Renoir’s film, The Crime of Monsieur Lange.

At the time, Picasso was with Marie-Thérése Walter - a relationship that continued during his nine years with Maar.

He frequently represented Maar, whose masochistic tendencies fascinated him, as a tortured figure - for example in La Femme Qui Pleure (Weeping Woman).