TEFAF Maastricht opened its doors for two preview days, showing a multitude of antiques, art and design from 272 dealers from around the globe. The fair runs through March 18 at the MECC. A number of works by the legendary Pablo Picasso are on display at the fair, including Portrait of a Bearded Man, a small oil piece that the artist painted at the young age of 14. It depicts a bald, bearded man sitting pensively at a desk, dressed in a red robe. The work is on sale for 1.7 million euros at the booth of Buenos Aires art and antiques dealer Jaime Eguiguren.
Picasso painted Portrait of a Bearded Man while he was living with his family in A Coruña, a small port city in the Galicia region of the northwest part of Spain. His father, José Ruiz y Blasco, moved the entire family from Malaga to A Coruña after being hired to teach figure and ornamental drawing at the Escuela Provincial de Bellas Artes. The precocious young artist rebelled, eventually dropping out of high school at age 13 with his father’s permission to pursue his artistic endeavors. In 1895 at age 14, Picasso painted Portrait of a Bearded Man, and while the painting is done in a more academic, realist style, it clearly demonstrates that, even at a young age, Picasso was an artistic genius. “In this small but great work painted by the Master we can clearly see that a genius is born a genius and, regardless of his age, he shows this from the beginning,” said Jaime Eguiguren in a statement about the piece. “In the same way that 12-year-old Mozart was already an accomplished musician acknowledged all over Europe, the work I present here reveals Picasso’s incredible precociousness and talent.”
There’s a huge opportunity for collectors to acquire a vast amount of works by Picasso at TEFAF, like a 1953 collage for 750,000 euros that Picasso created as a poster for the art magazine Verve, which was founded by art critic Tériade in 1937, who published 26 issues from 1937 to 1960.
There’s also a handful of ceramics by Picasso, like a 1955 pitcher that features a hand-painted face from an edition of 500 for 19,500 euros and a 29,500 euro 1953 ceramic platter of a his dove of peace that’s drawn in white over a blue background surrounded by a black border of stars, and was created in an edition of 400. Both pieces are available at the fair at William Weston Gallery, which is also showing a 15,500 euro Picasso aquatint of a bust of a woman wearing a kerchief around her head from 1939, and a chalk and pen-drawn lithograph from 1947 titled Ines et son Enfant for 29,500 euros.
European gallery Robilant + Voena is showing a 1946 painting titled La Faune Au Manteau Violet (Fauna in a violet jacket), that shows a portrait of a horned, goat-like figure wearing a purple coat that’s on offer for $6.5 million. Mazzoleni Gallery is showing a 1968 painting by Picasso that depicts a bust of a musketeer with curly squiggle for hair, a mustache and goatee with a pipe coming from his mouth for 7 million GBP. There’s also a raunch 1972 colored crayon and wash on paper by Picasso titled Deux nus couches (Two sleeping nudes) that features two nude women, their legs wide open to reveal their vaginas, for 1.6 million euros.
