At 170 by 149 centimeters, “Meadow” is “an unequivocal masterpiece, one of the most virtuosic, dramatic and pioneering works of Paula Rego in the 1990s”
The painting “Meadow”, painted by the artist Paula Rego in 1996, it was sold on Tuesday at a Sotheby's auction in London for £2.07 million (€2.45 million).
Purchased in 2002 for a private Italian collection, it was now sold without breaking the record value for the Portuguese-British artist who died in 2022, as was expected.
In 2023, the panel "Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney's 'Fantasia'" Paula Rego, was auctioned in London for 3.5 million euros, a new record for a work by the Portuguese artist.
At 170 by 149 centimeters, “Meadow” is “an unequivocal masterpiece, one of the most virtuosic, dramatic and pioneering works of Paula Rego in the 1990s”, you can read on the auction house’s website.
As Sotheby's recalled, "Meadow" was classified as the "most impressive image" of an exhibition of 23 large-scale works presented in 1996 at the Marlborough gallery in New York, among which were paintings in which Rego based himself on Disney works such as "Fantasia" or "Snow White".
“In ‘Meadow’, all four women are versions of Rego and the canvas becomes the arena in which the artist reveals her fantasies and desires. In the foreground, a female figure in a traditional Portuguese dress – the Traje à Vianesa – is pressed into an armchair gazing out at the horizon. Behind her sits the isolated and mysteriously hidden male protagonist, classically conceived in the serpentine pose with tense muscles, which has led to comparisons with Cézanne,” the auctioneer added.
Born in Lisbon, Paula Rego (1935-2022) began drawing as a child and, at the age of 17, on his father's advice, he went to study at the Slade School of Fine Arts, in London, the city where he would later settle.
It stood out for the uniqueness of its work, inspired by literature and personal experiences, and marked, over the decades, by the defense of women's rights, particularly in the series dedicated to abortion and in others on female oppression and repression.
Source: cnnportugal