Revealed: Picasso’s granddaughter owned a Van Gogh—which she sold at Sotheby’s – The Art Newspaper

One in every of Pablo Picasso’s grandchildren, Marina, purchased a Van Gogh—and she or he bought it at Sotheby’s in New York on 13 Could. Woman in a Wood (September-October 1882) went for $952,500.

The watercolour depicts a girl with a scarf strolling by a glade close to The Hague, the place Van Gogh lived for practically two years. On the reverse is an outline of a fishing boat on the seaside on the close by coastal city of Scheveningen. Additionally painted in watercolour, the sketchy Boat on the Seashore with Figures (September-October 1882) seems to be unfinished. This seascape just isn’t recorded within the 1996 Hulsker Van Gogh catalogue raisonné and we’re publishing it in color for the primary time.

Marina is the daughter of Picasso’s son Paulo, from the artist’s relationship with the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, whom he had married in 1918 (they separated in 1935). On Picasso’s loss of life in 1973 Marina was aged 22.

She had a fraught adolescence, struggling emotionally and financially. This was partly a results of Picasso’s abandonment of her grandmother and later household issues. Marina’s brother Pablito tragically died by suicide a couple of weeks after Picasso’s loss of life.

Following a prolonged authorized dispute after his loss of life, Picasso’s monumental property, together with 10,000 artworks, was divided among the many heirs, together with Marina. After dwelling in relative poverty, she instantly acquired untold wealth.

Marina purchased the Van Gogh in 1987, by a pal, the Swiss-based vendor Jan Krugier. The watercolour had come from a Tehran-based collector.

In Marina’s 2001 autobiography Picasso: My Grandfather, she wrote that she was typically requested what her newly acquired wealth meant: “Initially I indulged myself… Lastly, I used to be capable of assist youngsters in misery midway world wide… Now cash is a software that provides me freedom, and that’s all.”

Marina has used a lot of her inherited riches to assist orphanages in Vietnam, the place she adopted three youngsters whom she introduced again to France. She has additionally supported charitable ventures nearer to her dwelling on the French Riviera.

In her autobiography, Marina added: “I don’t like speaking about cash. Maybe as a result of I’ve some. Or as a result of I used to not have any once we lived within the shadow of a genius.”

Marina’s angle in the direction of Picasso was advanced, however above all she resented the best way her grandmother had been handled. With the ladies in his life, “he submitted them to his animal sexuality, tamed them, bewitched them, ingested them, crushed them on his canvas”, she wrote. Marina nonetheless bears the psychological scars of what occurred practically a century in the past, and has mentioned the numerous years she later spent in remedy.

Marina by no means spoke out about her Van Gogh, and till simply earlier than the Could public sale it was not publicly identified that she owned the watercolour, which was presumably purchased as an early “indulgence”. For somebody who had been raised in relative poverty, instantly having the ability to purchase a Van Gogh will need to have appeared like a dream. 

One other Van Gogh got here up at public sale in Could.

Christie’s in New York bought a Van Gogh panorama oil portray, additionally accomplished in The Hague. In the Dunes (September 1883), went for $4m on 12 Could, the day earlier than Marina’s watercolour.

The vendor is US businessman Jeffrey P. Draime and his spouse, who purchased the image at public sale in 2014 for $1.8m. From 2015 to 2023 they lent it to the Butler Institute of American Artwork in Youngstown, Ohio. It is likely one of the final works which Van Gogh painted in The Hague, simply earlier than he left his associate Sien Hoornik and set off to color in Drenthe, within the north of the Netherlands.

REVISED: Initially printed on 2 Could 2025, this weblog submit was up to date with new data on 8 August 2025.

Martin Bailey is a number one Van Gogh specialist and particular correspondent for The Artwork Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions on the Barbican Artwork Gallery, Compton Verney/Nationwide Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.

Martin has written various bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and US), Starry Evening: Van Gogh on the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (2024, UK and US) are additionally now obtainable in a extra compact paperback format.

His different current books embrace Dwelling with Vincent van Gogh: The Houses & Landscapes that formed the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which offers an summary of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Buddy Van Gogh/Emile Bernard offers the primary English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).

To contact Martin Bailey, please e-mail vangogh@theartnewspaper.com

Please observe that he doesn’t undertake authentications.

Explore all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh here