''Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto'' (also known as ''The Absinthe Drinker'') (french: Portrait bleu de Angel Fernández de Soto) is a

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this ...

by Spanish artist

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

completed in 1903 during his Blue Period. The

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

depicts Picasso's friend and fellow painter, Angel Fernandez de Soto, in a bar with a glass of

absinthe Absinthe (, ) is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from several plants, including the flowers and leaves of '' Artemisia absinthium'' ("grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. Historica ...

. The painting was previously owned by musical theatre composer

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musical ...

. On 23 June 2010, the painting was sold at auction for £34.7 million.

Background

''Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto'' is a study of a young Spanish artist sitting in a bar, shrouded in tobacco smoke from a pipe, with a glass of absinthe in front of him. The young man, Fernández de Soto, was Picasso's friend and was usually referred to as an "amusing wastrel", as he enjoyed drinking and partying. Picasso met Fernández de Soto in 1899 and they twice shared studios in Barcelona. The portrait gives an insight into the life of Picasso and his circle of friends, and Picasso immortalized Fernández de Soto in several of his paintings, some of which are now held in the

Museu Picasso The Museu Picasso (, "Picasso Museum") is an art museum in Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. It houses an extensive collection of artworks by the twentieth-century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, with a total of 4251 of his works. It is housed in f ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Fernández de Soto was later killed in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

. The Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation purchased the painting for £18 million at a

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

auction in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1995. The painting was included in a selection of works from Lloyd Webber's collection, which was exhibited at London's

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in 2003.

Dispute over ownership

In 2006, Lloyd Webber announced that he would be selling ''Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto'' at auction for charity. However, the painting was withdrawn from auction after a claim that the previous owner was forced to sell it under duress from the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in Germany. The previous owner's family reached an out-of-court settlement with the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, which allowed the foundation to retain ownership of the painting and to be free to sell the work.

2010 auction

In March 2010, it was announced that Lloyd Webber had made the decision to auction off the painting to benefit his arts, culture and heritage charity foundation. The painting was to be included in a

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

auction of Impressionist and Modern art in London on 23 June 2010. The painting became the most highly estimated work of art to be offered at auction in Europe, with a pre-sale estimate of between £30–40 million. Jussi Pylkkänen, president of Christie's Europe division said the painting is "one of the most important works of art to be offered at auction in decades". On 23 June 2010, the painting came to auction and was sold for £34.7 million to an anonymous telephone bidder.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto Angel Fernandez de Soto Angel Fernandez de Soto 1903 paintings Angel Fernandez de Soto Food and drink paintings Andrew Lloyd Webber