London: Famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso’s artwork depicting a tomato plant growing on his windowsill, painted during the Nazi occupation of Paris, is estimated to fetch a whopping 15 million pounds at an auction in the UK.
The artwork was painted by Picasso in 1944 weeks before Paris was liberated from Nazi occupation. Blacklisted by the Nazis, Picasso was banned from exhibiting his wartime work in public. The painting represents hardships of war – Parisians were forced to grow their own produce as food was scarce – and the resilience of the human spirit.
The painting was first bought 1947 by Stephen Carlton Clark, founder of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Following his death, a private collector purchased it in 1976. He is now selling the piece at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sales in London on March 1 for 10-15 million pounds, ‘The Telegraph’ reported.
“The light and colour in the picture represent the idea that there was light at the end of the tunnel. The Liberation of Paris was just around the corner,” said Samuel Valette, a specialist in Impressionist and Modern Art.
“Picasso could not exhibit any pictures during the war years because he was considered a degenerate artist by the Nazis. He was already at this time a superstar,” Valette said. “He could have fled Paris but clearly for him it was an act of resistance to continue his life there,” he said.
Valette believes there may be another message hidden in the painting. That year, Picasso began an affair with Francoise Gilot, a student 40 years his junior. “I wonder if in this picture he is representing his new love in a secret way. It is a very sensual picture in a body of work that is quite masculine and sombre,” he added.
