The renewed interest in Professor Thrupiece's Iberian connections, resulting from the recent publication of Imin Clubbe-Lande's Professor Thrupiece: The Ibiza Years is already producing remarkable finds. Only days after its publication, The Threadbone Fine Art Restoration Laboratory has announced that the Picasso portrait hitherto know to connoisseurs throughout the world as Portrait Of Jaime Sabartes As Grandee, is in fact a portrait of Professor Thrupiece painted by the famous Spanish artist when they were both house guests at the holiday home of famous motor racing ace Fernando Alonso in 1978. Alonso (born in 1981) was not present at the time.
Critics have long known that Picasso's later period - during which his style altered subtly but decisively - was marked by a strong tendency to portray strong Dorset women - the result, no doubt, of the marked influence which his Ibizan encounters with the Professor strongly encouraged. For this reason portraits of men are rare amongst his output at this time, making confirmation that Portrait Of Jaime Sabartes As Grandee is in fact Portrait of Professor Thrupiece as a Cigar all the more significant.
Threadbone Fine Art Laboratories' Head of Restoration and Forensic Aesthetics, Ray Scanner, told the assembled press that he had long suspected that the portrait might be of someone other than Jaime Sabartes but could see no reason why Picasso should have hidden the true identity of his subject. "I have long suspected that the portrait might be of someone other than Jaime Sabartes but could see no reason why Picasso should have hidden the true identity of his subject", he said, "I now think we know the answer". Asked to elaborate, he declined. "I decline to elaborate", he said, "but will say this... anyone with an ultraviolet scanner who cares to examine the top right hand corner will be getting warm".
Readers can judge for themselves by clicking (HERE) or on the image below. In the meantime excitement in the art world is at boiling point and a spokesperson for Sotherbone's the Dorset-based auctioneers estimated that the new evidence, if accepted by the International Foundation for Picasso Attribution and ratified by the Threadbone Corporation which holds all of the Professor's image rights, would add several pounds to the value of the picture.
The Picasso portrait formerly known as Portrait Of Jaime Sabartes As Grandee [LEFT] is, according to experts at the Threadbone Fine Arts Restoration Laboratory really a portrait of the artist's close friend Professor Thrupiece. TOP RIGHT: Professor Thrupiece (allegedly); BOTTOM RIGHT: Pablo Picasso (almost certainly).
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