Picasso Painted His Lover as a Sea Creature. Now, a Big Sale

Being depicted as a tentacled sea creature by your lover may not sound like the highest compliment. But when that lover is Pablo Picasso, well ... it's a whole other story. Femme nue Couchée, a painting that imagines Marie-Thérèse Walter as a five-limbed sea creature, sold for $67.5 million at Sotheby’s auction in New York on Tuesday. The Guardian characterizes it as "one of the highest prices ever achieved for a portrait of Walter," and CNN notes it topped the $60 million the painting was expected to fetch (though it flags two other depictions of Walter, also from 1932, that sold for more than $100 million each).

It was the first time the work had been up for auction, having passed from Picasso's descendants to the anonymous seller in 2008. A Sotheby's rep called it "a deeply lyrical ode to the artist’s unbound desire for Marie-Thérèse; with her fin-like, endlessly pliable limbs, the portrait continues to enchant as it perfectly captures Picasso’s muse as the ultimate expression of his genius." The two met when Walter was 17 and Picasso a married 45-year-old. Walter ultimately gave birth to his second child, Maya. Picasso died in 1973, and Walter in 1977. An interesting side note from Reuters: Though Walter loved swimming, Picasso never learned to swim. (More Pablo Picasso stories.)