Estimated at around 8 million euros, an unknown Picasso masterpiece unveiled in Paris

Entitled "Bust of a woman with a flowered hat" , this painting, measuring 80x60 centimetres, painted in oil, represents the photographer, muse of the surrealists, who was Picasso's companion for around ten years.

It is "estimated at around eight million euros, a low, reasonable estimate, which could soar," explained Christophe Lucien, auctioneer in charge of the sale, which his auction house has set for October 24.

Signed by Picasso and dated July 11, 1943, the painting was acquired in August 1944 by a major French collector, grandfather of the current beneficiaries who wish to sell it as part of an inheritance, he said.

"Unknown to the public and never exhibited except in Picasso's studio for a few friends, it has never been varnished or restored, it is simply framed with thin strips and in its original condition," said Agnès Sevestre-Barbé, a Picasso specialist who was present at the unveiling of the work.

It is "quite exceptional and marks a milestone in the history of art and in that of Picasso," said Mr. Lucien.

Inspired by "both naturalist and cubist" inspiration, according to him, the painting shows Dora Maar in the grip of sadness but with a face imbued with gentleness, unlike other portraits where the Spanish master depicted her with an expression where violence and emotions seem exacerbated.

She wears a flowered hat in rather bright colors (red, yellow, green, purple) with a darker bust, at the time when Picasso abandoned her for a younger woman, Françoise Gilot.

"The joyful colors are surprising, it's 1943, a difficult year with rather dark works in this period," Olivier Picasso, the painter's grandson, told AFP when he saw a photo of the work that he had not yet physically discovered.

"Very rare"

"A painting, and a portrait of Dora Maar at that, is rare. It's even very rare for it to be sold in France, as it is on the market in general," he adds.

Several of Dora Maar's portraits have been sold mainly in the United States by major Anglo-Saxon auction houses, he recalls. In 2006, "Dora Maar with a Cat" sold for $95 million in New York, after "Woman Seated in a Garden" (1938), also acquired in New York in 1999 for $49 million.

Authenticated by the Picasso administration, the portrait unveiled Thursday was only known to Picasso specialists and enthusiasts in black and white and through the catalogue raisonné of his works (official inventory) mentioning it, according to Drouot.

Photographs by Brassaï, a friend of Picasso, taken in the painter's studio (rue des Grands-Augustins) also attest to the presence of the painting, installed on the ground near the famous "'woman in a rocking chair' and a (mummified) rabbit, hanging on the wall, recovered by Picasso in the square courtyard of the Louvre" , according to Mr. Lucien.

Dora Maar , whose real name was Henriette Théodora Markovic (1907-1997), is best known as a photographer and became known in particular for her countless portraits of Picasso .

Picasso painted several portraits of her as a "Weeping Woman" , her "deep nature" , he claimed. She also inspired a series of paintings on the theme of "Seated Women" .

Dora Maar will also produce a photographic report on Picasso's masterpiece "Guernica" during its creation in 1937 in his studio at Les Grands-Augustins, now in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.