Image: Source-linked image unavailable pending an exact holding-museum object record
View source →Reading (La Lecture)
Pablo Picasso, 1932
Technical Details
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
130 × 97.5 cm (51.2 × 38.4 in)
Style
Surrealism / Painting
Decade
1930s
About This Work
Reading (La Lecture) centers a figure absorbed in a book, using the rounded, biomorphic forms and warm color associated with Picasso's 1932 portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter. The subject of reading introduces an interval of stillness: the book creates a private focus within the composition, while the figure's simplified body and color relationships keep the work poised between recognizable domestic scene and stylized invention.
Dated 1932, this oil on canvas is cataloged in the Musée National Picasso-Paris collection and is associated with Picasso's major series of portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter. Its 130 × 97.5 cm scale gives the seated figure and book an unusually concentrated presence. The catalog identifies the museum as the holding institution but has not yet verified an exact public object page for this entry; the general collection route remains for transparency, and a mismatched reproduction has been removed pending a source-confirmed image.
Current Location
Musée National Picasso-Paris, Paris, France
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →Valuation & Provenance
2026 Estimated Value
Priceless / Not for sale
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
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