In what year did Picasso paint 'Le Rêve'?

Picasso painted Le Rêve in 1932.

The painting, whose French title means “The Dream,” is an oil on canvas measuring 130 by 97 centimetres. Picasso is said to have painted it in a single afternoon, on 24 January 1932. It portrays Marie-Thérèse Walter, his young lover and muse, in a reclining, dreamlike pose.

Le Rêve belongs to Picasso’s important 1932 period, when he created many intensely colored portraits of Walter. Its simplified contours and strongly divided areas of color connect it with Cubist methods, while the sensual subject and distorted face give the work a more personal, Surrealist atmosphere.

The painting is also remembered for an accidental-looking erotic image embedded in Walter’s upturned face, often interpreted as a symbolic representation of Picasso himself. It later became famous in the art market: Steve Cohen bought it in a private sale in 2013 for a reported $155 million. It should not be confused with Picasso’s other 1932 portraits of Walter, including Le Repos and Girl before a Mirror.