A portrait of the muse who transformed painter Pablo Picasso’s life and art went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London today. La Lecture depicts his secret lover, Marie-Therese Walter, who was 17 when Picasso, then 45, introduced himself as she stepped off a Paris train. Their relationship was kept secret for many years because of her age and because Picasso was married.

The 1932 painting was expected to fetch between £12m and £18m, but actually it went for £36m in the end (i.e. double).

Ms Walter inspired a number of works including La Reve as well as Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, both painted in 1932. Indeed, until La Lecture was painted, Ms Walter had only appeared in Picasso’s works in code with her features often embedded in the background of his paintings. It was when the picture was exhibited at a Picasso retrospective that the artist’s wife, Olga Khokhlova, realised there was another woman in his life and their marriage subsequently broke up.

Here is the painting for free!