NEW YORK CITY — Swann Galleries assembled a sale of Old Master through Modern prints, offering a selection of 482 lots on November 3. The top lot at $87,500, including premium, was Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) important lithograph, “Françoise,” 1946, signed and numbered 31/50 in pencil on the lower margin and measuring 25¼ by 19-5/8 inches. In this lithograph, from a series of 11 different versions Picasso made during June 1946, Picasso shows Françoise Gilot (b 1921) with characteristic narrow, arching eyebrows, full lips and youthful visage. Picasso called her his muse and mistress from 1943 to 1953 and the mother of their children, Claude and Paloma. Françoise was born to a wealthy family in Neuilly-sur-Seine, her father was a businessman, and her mother was an amateur artist. From an early age, Françoise yearned to be an artist like her mother, but her father forced her into studying law, which she ultimately abandoned after several failed attempts to resist her father’s control, by 1942 devoting her life to becoming an artist. Among Picasso’s many lovers, she became “The Woman Who Says No,” defying him and ultimately leaving him in the south of France. More highlights from this sale will follow in a later review.