The time appears to be 7.25, and the year is definitely 1932. Pablo Picasso, a towering figure of 20th-century art, has painted a portrait – one of many – of his “golden muse” and secret lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter.
It is one of only three major works by the artist to feature a watch, although Picasso was fascinated by timepieces and owned several beautiful and expensive examples.
The portrait, Femme à la Montre, will be on display in London for the first time for five days from Saturday, before it goes up for auction by Sotheby’s next month. It has an estimate in excess of $120m (£99m).
Picasso painted Femme à la Montre during his explosive “year of wonders” as he prepared for his first large-scale retrospective in Paris at the age of 50.
He had been intimately involved with Walter for several years, a relationship that started when the artist, then 45, spotted the 17-year-old through the window of Galeries Lafayette in Paris. She inspired paintings, drawings and sculptures, some of which are considered the greatest works from Picasso’s eight-decade career.
Painted in vivid colours, Femme à la Montre shows Walter seated and in profile. On her wrist is a watch with a simple face and bright yellow strap.
“Picasso is all about passion, but this specific passion [for watches] is one that is not generally known about,” said Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s vice-chair for global fine arts.
“He was an incredibly stylish man, very interested in his sartorial identity. And a great connoisseur of watches. Even photos of him wearing his watches are prized by watch collectors.”
Among the watches owned by Picasso was a late 1940s Jaeger-LeCoultre triple date moonphase, a 1950s Patek Philippe moonphase, and a 1960s Rolex GMT-Master.
In the portrait, Walter is depicted as an “enthroned Madonna”, according to Shaw. By 1932 she had been Picasso’s lover for five years, with the pair concealing their relationship from the artist’s wife, Olga. “I think the watch relates to [Picasso’s and Walter’s] stolen time together – although by now she was an open secret.”
The portrait was bought in 1968 by Emily Fisher Landau, one of the greatest art collectors of the 20th century. She hung it above the mantelpiece in the living room of her New York apartment. By the time she died, aged 102, earlier this year, her art collection could have filled several museums.
Fisher Landau began collecting art in earnest after a burglar made off with diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires that had been gifts from her husband. Instead of replacing the jewellery, Fisher Landau decided to use the substantial insurance payout to buy paintings and sculptures.
She acquired works by Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee and others. Andy Warhol painted her portrait.
“She was a tremendously important cultural figure, a real pacemaker for contemporary art in America,” said Shaw.
After her death, Fisher Landau’s daughter, Candia Fisher, pledged hundreds of works to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, where the collector had been a trustee.
About 120 artworks are to be sold at Sotheby’s in New York on 8 November in an auction that could make up to £500m.
Femme à la Montre was a “tremendously desirable, very special” painting, said Shaw. Picasso’s record to date is almost $180m achieved in 2015 for Les Femmes d’Alger (Version “O”).
Femme à la Montre will be on display at Sotheby’s, 4-35 New Bond St, London W1A 2AA, 7-11 October
