“My interest has always been people.”
—Inger ElliottTreasures from the Estate of Inger and Osborn Elliott
Inger and Osborn Elliott cultivated an art collection worthy of praise. Their home served as a jewel box of taste, with brightly colored walls adorned with paintings, photographs, and drawings, all delicately and masterfully curated. The couple's diverse collection reflects their devotion to New York City's cultural, intellectual, and civic spheres, while also spanning a global reach of artistic styles and techniques. Inger, originally from Norway, had a passion for photojournalism that brought her to Southeast Asia, where she documented the Vietnam War from a helicopter. She would later go on to found China Seas, a design firm specializing in batik textiles. Osborn, a revolutionary Newsweek editor and social advocate, went on to become the Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Trailblazers in their own regard, the Elliotts amassed a collection including rare, early works by Willem de Kooning, Wassily Kandinsky, and Milton Avery, among those by many other innovative modern and post-war painters, photographers, and printmakers.
Inger and Osborn Elliott Inger and Oz's eye for style, together with a casual, chic approach to curation, set them apart from other collectors. It is their charisma that lives on through these artworks, proving that a distinct approach to collecting yields the finest quality. These artworks not only have excellent provenance, but also exhibit a unique rarity and quality, remarkably contemporary despite their age.
“He took me to his studio.... He kept looking at my face. When I left he said, ‘Come back tomorrow.’ And then afterwards it was always ‘tomorrow.’”
—Marie-Thérèse WalterPablo Picasso first encountered Marie-Thérèse Walter on the streets of Paris in 1927; the seventeen-year-old was in the Galeries Lafayette when the artist saw her through the window. Enamored by her appearance, Picasso waited for her outside. Once she emerged, Picasso approached her with a proposition: “Mademoiselle, you have an interesting face. I would like to paint your portrait.”i By her account, she had no idea who he was, though his tie – a black and red one that she would later keep throughout her life – indicated to her that she was someone of worth. He took her, thirty years his junior, for a coffee, then to his studio. Thus was the beginning of an eight-year affair.
The soft, intimate crop of Visage de Marie-Thérèse speaks to the visually arresting nature of his first and fateful glance at her face, one that firmly stopped him in his tracks. Past their first encounter, the young woman continued to enchant Picasso as his muse and lover, despite his marriage to Ukranian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, with whom he had a five-year-old son. Drawn to her flaxen hair, strong sculptural profile, and athletic build, Marie-Thérèse’s distinctive features appeared in countless works by Picasso over the next decade. The two had a daughter, Maya, in 1935, and while their relationship ended that same year when Picasso began seeing the Surrealist artist Dora Maar, he continued to visit Marie-Thérèse and Maya, even asking her to marry him in 1955, which she declined. Their continued correspondence through much of Picasso’s life proves that perhaps her striking face never left his mind’s eye.
i Olivier Widmaier Picasso, Picasso: An Intimate Portrait, 2018, p. 58.
Provenance
Christie's, London, Old Master, Modern and Contemporary Prints, July 3, 2001, lot 189
Sotheby's, New York, Picasso Through The Eyes Of A Connoisseur, November 3, 2014, lot 103Literature
Georges Bloch 95
Brigitte Baer 243
Fernand Mourlot XXIII
see Patrick Cramer books 16Artist Biography
Pablo Picasso
Spanish • 1881 - 1973
One of the most dominant and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was a master of endless reinvention. While significantly contributing to the movements of Surrealism, Neoclassicism and Expressionism, he is best known for pioneering the groundbreaking movement of Cubism alongside fellow artist Georges Braque in the 1910s. In his practice, he drew on African and Iberian visual culture as well as the developments in the fast-changing world around him.
Throughout his long and prolific career, the Spanish-born artist consistently pushed the boundaries of art to new extremes. Picasso's oeuvre is famously characterized by a radical diversity of styles, ranging from his early forays in Cubism to his Classical Period and his later more gestural expressionist work, and a diverse array of media including printmaking, drawing, ceramics and sculpture as well as theater sets and costumes designs.
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF INGER AND OSBORN ELLIOTT
70
Visage de Marie-Thérèse (Face of Marie-Thérèse) (Bl. 95, Ba. 243, M. XXIII, see C. bks 16)
1928
Lithograph, on Japan paper chine appliquéd to wove paper and laid down on rigid carboard or Masonite, with margins.
I. 8 1/8 x 5 1/2 in. (20.6 x 14 cm)
S. 10 3/8 x 7 3/8 in. (26.4 x 18.7 cm)
One of 14 proofs (aside from the two signed and numbered editions totaling 325), the edition was published by Galerie Percier, Paris and 200 copies were used as the frontispiece for the book Picasso by André Level, Paris, 1928, framed.
Estimate
$5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $12,700
editions@phillips.com
212-940-1220
Editions & Works on Paper
New York Auction 27 June 2024
