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A woman and the vice-president of Sotheby's France Andrew Strauss (R) look at a Picasso's painting "Dora Maar with Cat"
© AFP Bertrand Guay

NEW YORK (AFP) - Estimated by Sotheby's auction house at around 50 million dollars, the Picasso, "Dora Maar With Cat," is one of the largest and most important portraits of the woman who was the artist's mistress and principal source of inspiration.

The canvas was painted in 1941 at the height of the couple's volatile relationship and has not been seen in public for more than 40 years.

"It is unquestionably one of Picasso's most extraordinary portrayals of the woman who for nearly a decade was his muse, model and lover," said Sotheby's Vice Chairman Charles Moffet.

The painting shows its subject three quarter-length posed in a large wooden chair with a small black cat behind her.

It is the most important of the series of Maar portraits to come up for auction since "Woman Seated in a Garden," which was sold in New York in 1999 for 49 million dollars.

"This is a thrilling painting to view and an incredible opportunity to bring to the market," said David Norman, a chairman of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Department.

The Picasso is part of a two-day Sotheby's sale that begins Wednesday and also includes a 1927 reclining nude by Henri Matisse, "Nu couche vu de dos," which carries an estimate of 15 million dollars.

Starting one day earlier than its rival, the Christie's auction offers top billing to a rare Van Gogh portrait, painted as a tribute to his friend and collaborator Paul Gauguin and expected to fetch more than 40 million dollars

Van Gogh's painting entitled "L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux"
© AFP/File John D McHugh

The subject of "L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux" was a woman, Marie Ginoux, who owned a cafe frequented by both Van Gogh and Gauguin during their time in the southern French city of Arles.

It was painted during a period of deep nostalgia for Van Gogh when the intense collaboration with Gauguin had abruptly ended and Van Gogh was institutionalized in an asylum.

During their time in Arles, both artists regularly used local residents as models and at one point persuaded Marie Ginoux to pose for a series of sketches.

In the portrait going under the hammer, Van Gogh diverted from his own, somewhat more expressive sketch and adopted a treatment that was closer in style to that of Gauguin's effort.

"It gives me enormous pleasure when you say the Arlesienne's portrait, which was based strictly on your drawing, is to your liking," he wrote to Gauguin in 1890.

"I tried to be respectfully faithful to your drawing, while nevertheless taking the liberty of interpreting through the medium of color the sober character and the style of the drawing in question," he wrote.

The Christie's auction will also include two Picassos -- each estimated at around 15 million dollars -- and a Gauguin still life that is expected to fetch 10 million dollars.

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