The painting, formerly owned by Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, reemerges onto the market for the first time in almost a quarter of a century.

Samuel Valette, senior specialist, Sotheby’s London, said: “In his portraits of Maya, Picasso reached for his most joyful, brightly coloured palette, and employed a combination of styles to elevate his daughter to the same level as his paintings of her mother, Marie-Thérèse – the artist’s greatest love, with whom we associate his most romantic pictures.

“There is a continued strong demand for paintings from the 1930s, and a work of this calibre is made even more remarkable for not having appeared on the market in almost a quarter of a century.”