Picasso's 'Le Rêve' ~ Restored, the Painting Goes On View

Written by Phil Specter Friday, 31 December 2010 03:25

New York City - Twice in 10 years, Pablo Picasso's celebrated 1932 painting of his sleeping mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, made international headlines. Alas, the artist's breathtaking painterly skill and candid insight into human nature were not the cause.  First, on a chilly November night in Manhattan, "Le Rêve" -- "The Dream" -- became the most expensive work at a glamorous 1997 auction, which broke all records for a single-owner sale. Then, early on a hot Las Vegas evening in September 2006, a new owner, Steve Wynn, poked a hole in the picture with an errant elbow, while showing the prize to unexpectedly shocked friends.

Now, for the first time since the elbow episode, "Le Rêve" is returning to public view. On Wednesday, New York's Acquavella Galleries presents "Picasso's Marie-Thérèse," a survey of works inspired by the middle-aged artist's nine-year affair with the pretty, young blond. Loans are coming from private collections and major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate.

The puncture left a several-inch tear across Marie-Thérèse's voluptuous left forearm. What happened in Vegas didn't stay there, as the calamity was reported in a New York Post gossip column, complete with factual errors, 10 days later. Soon, variations on the horrible tale appeared on the Internet, in print and on global TV and radio.

The ballooning art market was the headline. In 1997, the painting had fetched $48.8 million at a landmark sale. In 2006, the damage occurred a day after its owner, casino and resort mogul Steve Wynn, had arranged to sell the painting privately -- an abruptly canceled $139-million deal, perhaps the most money ever for a painting.

No cynicism is needed to assume that one goal of the exhibition is to publicly demonstrate that repairs to "Le Rêve" have not had serious effect on its market value. William Acquavella has brokered many of Wynn's art acquisitions over the years, perhaps including this one. (Wynn bought the Picasso privately in 2001.) The Upper Eastside gallery is housed in the old Astor mansion on 79th Street, a stone's throw from the Metropolitan Museum. There, many Old Masters paintings would reveal, if they could be taken down off brocade walls and examined from the back, any number of damage-repairs made over centuries. Not all masterpieces are pristine.

What makes the painting so exceptional is its exalted place in a hallowed tradition that includes Titian's "Venus of Urbino," Caravaggio's "Triumphant Cupid," Courbet's "Origin of the World" and many more. "Le Rêve" is an exquisite Modern sex painting.

Picasso's most imaginative device in "Le Rêve" is this fusion of a sexual fata morgana with the radical pictorial device of Cubism, the innovation that had made him Modern art's first giant. Cubism shows an object from multiple sides simultaneously. In "Le Rêve," Marie-Thérèse has two faces -- one frontal, one in profile. It's as if she's animated, lolling her head. The sharp profile is painted off-white, approximating the young blond's porcelain complexion. Directly above it is the pinkish-purple "penile" image that Richardson describes, resting lightly on her tranquil face. Picasso was a sadomasochist, and part of his seduction of young Marie -- they met when she was 17 and underage -- was to share his collection of erotica with her.

Astronomical prices and an insurance-busting mishap are fun to contemplate. So, for some, was a stained blue dress. But Picasso's erotic masterpiece represents something far more fundamental. Suffice to say, "Le Rêve" is what makes the world go round.

By... Christopher Knight at the LA Times

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