Muse

Picasso was an incredibly prolific artist, painting more than 50,000 artworks in his lifetime.

Much of his creativity was fuelled by his complex relationship with women.

The Muse is typical of a series of paintings he produced in the 1930s, inspired by his relationship with a young woman named Marie-Therese Walter.

Picasso bumped into Marie-Therese in the streets of Paris.

She was 17. He was 45 and already married to Ukrainian ballerina Olga Khokhlova.

Picasso and Marie-Therese began a secrete relationship which sparked a surge of artistic creativity.

He painted endless portraits of her - all bold, creative, cheerful, full of sun and happiness - and deeply erotic.

However Picasso was an infamous womaniser.

In the mid 1930s he met his next muse - surrealist painter Dora Maar.

His paintings shifted to sadder and more tortured portraits - which she was apparently very unhappy about!

Marie-Therese Walter's portraits by Picasso have become iconic.

One of her portraits recently sold for $69 million.