Product：Pablo Picasso's 1905 painting of a girl holding a flower basket

NO：15

Starting Price：USD 70,000,000

Transaction Price：USD 115,000,000

Specification：May 08, 2018

Auction Time：23-Jun-Sat

Auction Company：Christie\'s in New York

This "Girl with a Flower Basket" was created in this period. The main character is Linda of Moulin Rouge, who has served as a model for many famous artists. The flowers in her hands suggest her fragile existence, as a vagrant struggling to survive in Montmartre Street.
 

Young girls hold a prominent position in Picasso's rose period paintings, often inspired by Linda or directly based on local models. In the sketch book used by Picasso in 1906, there was a pen sketch of a young girl wearing a white dress and holding a bouquet of flowers.
 

This painting is likely the initial sketch of this work. In the final work, her basket is filled with red poppy flowers, symbolizing bread and wine, as well as the body and blood of Christ at the Eucharist.
 

This rite of passage during adolescence, from innocence to experience, from youth to early maturity - or in a larger sense, from sacred to secular - constitutes an important theme of Picasso's Rose period.
 

Picasso's neoclassicism is manifested in simple and simplified curves, presented with minimal styling and details. Compared with more detailed handling of reality, he particularly endows Linda with a unique expression.