Image: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
View source →Girl Reading (La Lecture) 1934
Pablo Picasso, 1934
Technical Details
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
162 × 130 cm (63.8 × 51.2 in)
Style
Surrealism
Decade
1930s
About This Work
A large, luminous canvas depicting Marie-Thérèse Walter absorbed in reading, painted during the height of their secret relationship. The figure's rounded, voluptuous forms are rendered in warm yellows and greens, with the characteristic simultaneous profile and frontal view that Picasso developed for his portraits of Marie-Thérèse. The mood is one of serene contentment — a rare moment of uncomplicated joy in Picasso's Surrealist work.
Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909–1977) was Picasso's secret mistress from 1927 until 1935, when she gave birth to their daughter Maya. Picasso painted her in states of sleep, reading, and dreaming — always passive, always bathed in warm light — in contrast to the angular, confrontational portraits of Dora Maar.
Current Location
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
Keywords
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