LONDON.- Four images of the celebrated Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), are to be sold at
Bonhams, New Bond Street, as part of its Photographs Sale on 19 May 2011. Three of the pictures - Picasso in front of La Chute dIcare, Vallauris, 1957; Picasso Vallauris, October, 1953; and Les Yeux de Picasso, Cannes, 1956 - were taken by French photographer, Andr Villers, with whom Picasso struck up a great friendship following a chance meeting on a street in Vallauris, France, in 1953, when Villers stopped to take Picassos picture. Each photograph has attracted a pre-sale estimate of 1,500 2,000. The fourth image was taken by German photographer, Werner Bokelberg. Entitled Picasso at St Tropez, 1965, it is estimated at 1,000 1,200.
The sale also features portraits of icons including: Brigitte Bardot by British photographer Terry ONeill (estimate 2,000 3,000); Jean Shrimpton in New York in 1962 by David Bailey (estimate 7,000 9,000); Marilyn Monroe in her famous Last Sitting by Bert Stern (estimate 1,000 1,500); Nelson Mandela revisiting his cell on Robben Island in 1994 by Jrgen Schadeberg (estimate 1,800 2,200); Mike Tyson by Albert Watson (estimate 3,500 4,500); The Beatles by Robert Freeman the instantly recognisable image that became the cover for the bands 1963 album With The Beatles (estimate 4,000 6,000); James Dean by Roy Schatt, from the well known Torn Sweater series (estimate 1,000 1,500); and Marlene Dietrich by Horst P. Horst (estimate 2,000 3,000).
Other highlights include: two photographs by legendary American photographer Irving Penn a stunning platinum print of his Five Dahomey Girls, Two Standing, 1967 (estimate 15,000 20,000) and the powerful Tambul Ialibu Warrior, New Guinea, 1970 (estimate 8,000 12,000); Dutch artist Ruud van Empels World #31, 2008 (estimate 10,000 15,000) and Moon #7, 2008 (estimate 7,000 9,000); and an impressive collection of 17 photobooks by American pop artist Edward Ruscha, many first editions, spanning the period 1962 to 2005 (estimate 10,000 15,000).