The work carries an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000 as it was created by Pablo Picasso and comes with written provenance including a 1979 signed statement by Picasso's daughter Maya.
Documents also show the drawing was sold in 1933 through the Bragaglia Galerie in Rome to collector Arturo Tonnarelli Gracetti, and now it is being offered by his family via auctioneer John Cook.
 Picasso's sketch of a boy looking wide awake |
Other highlights in the sale include works by American pop artist Jasper Johns and British royal portrait artist Richard Stone.
This Friday (August 19) will see an invitation-only auction of the works. Any left unsold will then be offered publicly over the weekend.
A Picasso painting is currently the most expensive artwork in the world, but the prolific artist created a great number of minor artworks and sketches, and some of these are relatively affordable.
 The woman in this signed postcard looks less lively |
Alternatively, collectors can get close to Picasso whilst viewing one of his great works by buying a signed reproduction. For example, a postcard of his Absinthe Drinker with his autograph is currently available on the private markets.
More than one of Picasso's works are known as The Absinthe Drinker. This one, Femme Ivre se Fatigue, is not to be confused with the work Andrew Lloyd Webber sold last year.
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