Picasso - The Dream

Pablo Picasso meets Marie-Thérèse Walter at the exit of the metro in front of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris. She is 17 and he is 45. He rushes towards her and says: "Hello, Miss. You have an interesting face, I would like to do your portrait. I feel that we are going to do great things together". The "dream" represents the artist's mistress and muse asleep in an armchair, painted in January 1932. This canvas of torrid eroticism was completed in a few hours, one afternoon on January 24, 1932. It belongs to Picasso's neoclassical period. This canvas has remained in many private collections, including that of Steve Wynn and was exhibited in Las Vegas.

In October 2006 , the owner of the work, Steve Wynn , accidentally punctured it with his elbow – on the eve of a potential private sale by mutual agreement to Steven Cohen for $139 million – making a hole of nearly 20 centimeters at the level of the left arm of the figure . A repair has since been carried out without apparent after-effects for the canvas , which was presented to the public in November 2008. Seven years later in 2013, Steven Cohen finally acquired The Dream for $155 million, making this work the most expensive of the painter's works.

The Dream, 1932

© Picasso Administration