Artcurial will offer Kees van Dongen's portrait of Brigitte Bardot in Paris on Saturday, October 24, as the centrepiece of its Selected 20/21 sale. The canvas, painted around 1959–1960 and measuring 130.2 by 97 centimetres, carries an estimate of €800,000 to €1.2 million excluding fees, and will be sold at the house's rooms on the rond-point des Champs-Élysées during Art Basel Paris week.

The painting has been in the artist's family for more than sixty years, which makes its return to the market a genuine event. Although the original never left the family's hands, its image is well known: it appeared on the poster and catalogue of the 1964 Salon des peintres témoins de leur temps at the Musée Galliera. Signed at the upper left, the portrait shows Bardot against a brilliant yellow ground, her gaze meeting the viewer directly, with accessories kept to a minimum so that attention rests on the sitter.

The sitting took place in van Dongen's studio at 75 rue de Courcelles, when the painter was in his eighties and Bardot was already an international star following Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman (1956). The two already knew each other: van Dongen had painted the young actress during a televised session at Maurice Chevalier's home in Marnes-la-Coquette in 1954. In her memoirs, Initiales B.B., Bardot later recalled him as a living legend. The portrait unites two figures from different generations — the former Fauve turned portraitist of Parisian high society, and the actress who reshaped the conventions of celebrity.

For collectors, the combination of family provenance, a world-famous sitter and an image in circulation since 1964 will be weighed against the painting's late date in van Dongen's career. The sale begins at 2 p.m. on October 24, and the auction room's verdict will show how the market prices that equation.