Impressive Early Picasso

This is a splendid early Picasso with a certificate verso suggesting it came from Sofia Imber’s personal collection and a second certificate of authenticity from the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art which Imber founded, funded and directed for many years. Both certificates contain the inventory number 378791 which suggests it was one of the Picassos Imber had acquired prior to founding the museum and subsequently placed on loan to it – and then retrieved years later when the Chavez regime seized the museum and ousted her. The painting is signed P Ruiz Picasso which is how Picasso signed his early works. His signature also appears verso. There is an ancient professional minor repair verso suggesting that it was known to be valuable even then. It does not have a gallery certificate or stamp which suggests that it might be one of the paintings that the fabulously wealthy Imber acquired directly from Picasso.