“I think there was something in my father’s soul that was like Picasso. He dreamed up business ideas,” says Hubert Neumann about the character of his late father, Morton G. Neumann – known to his friends as Mort. The Chicagoan industrialist founded the successful mail-order cosmetics and personal-care company Valmor Products when he recognized there was an untapped market for accessible cosmetics tailored specifically for African American consumers. By selling wholesale to smaller stores, creating a retail mail-order business and recruiting sales agents from across the country, Morton built a successful empire. Yet in art circles, he was to become better known as Pablo Picasso’s “favorite American collector.”

Neumann’s collecting journey began in the early 1940s when he started purchasing artwork from Marshall Fields, the upmarket department store in Chicago. He initially gravitated towards artists based in his home town, but it was during his trips to Europe after the war that he first encountered Picasso and began collecting in a more serious fashion. Eventually befriending the artist and building a close relationship with Pablo and his companion, Jacqueline Roque, Morton went on to acquire exceptional paintings, works on paper and sculpture from Picasso along with works by many of his contemporaries.

From the 1950s until his death in 1985, Morton – along with his wife, Rose – acquired paintings and sculptures by Joan Miro, Jean Dubuffet, Man Ray, Paul Klee and Alberto Giacometti, among others, as well as a trove of exceptional works by Picasso. One of his art-world peers later noted that Morton’s “talent is visual. Everything is in that great eye.”

That eye was never so finely focused as the moment in 1951 when Neumann purchased Buste de femme from Picasso’s main dealer in Paris, Galerie Lousie Leiris. Executed on 24 March 1949, Buste de femme is among a small but celebrated series of portraits depicting Gilot in labyrinthine contours and rich jewel tones. Held in the Neumann Family Collection ever since, Buste de femme has never been offered at auction before now. As one of the star lots of The New York Sales, this masterwork by Picasso will be offered in The Modern Evening Auction at Sotheby’s New York on 18 November.

“My father was obsessed with certain things he wanted to do with his life. One was to own a Rolls-Royce,” recalls Hubert. “And one of them was to own a Picasso.” He went on to own many. The friendship between Neumann and Picasso was one of mutual and genuine affection. Following one visit with the artist, Morton sent Hubert and his brother, Arthur, postcards signed by Picasso during their lunch.

The generosity went both ways. In the early 1960s, Morton Neumann – already a collector of Picasso’s work and likely known to the artist – showed up at Picasso’s door with an unusual gift. “I had this idea,” Neumann recalled. “P-a-b-l-o p-i-c-a-s-s-o … that’s 12 letters. So I had wristwatches made up with the letters in place of numerals. I gave six of them to Picasso. I know that he liked them very much, because he saved them and only gave them to bullfighters he admired.”

The artist-collector relationship delivered curious anecdotes over the years. “My mother and father were at lunch with Jacqueline Roque, and my father offered to pay the bill,” recalls Hubert. “And she said that she would cut his throat if he paid the bill. Picasso had this kind of peasant dimension. He had a big wicker basket full of cash, like potatoes, and then he would say, ‘Jacqueline, fill it up again,’ And they would.”

Another great Picasso in the Neumann Family Collection is Femme assise, painted circa 1939, which Morton bought over the phone from the US to Picasso’s dealer in Europe. At the time, placing a trans-Atlantic phone call was both difficult and expensive. During negotiations, Neumann asked for a discount. However, as Hubert recalls, Morton was talking to “a different kind of dealer. He says, ‘Mr. Neumann, I won’t give you any discount, but I’ll pay for the phone call.’”

Years later, in 1980, Buste de femme would feature as a highlight of the landmark exhibition The Morton G. Neumann Family Collection, Selected Works, held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. before traveling to the Art Institute of Chicago the following year. At the exhibition’s initial opening The Washington Post correspondent was ardent in his praise of the collection, and above all, the man behind it: “Its Picassos are terrific, its Picabia superb. Its Legers, Klees and Man Rays include first-rate examples. But one Morton G. Neumann is the true star of this show.”

Lot

Pablo Picasso

Buste de femme

18 November 2024 | Sale price: 9,950,000 USD

Modern Evening Auction

18 November 2024 | 7:00 PM EST | New York