A captivating depiction by Pablo Picasso of his then 22-year-old muse and lover as a sea creature is expected to fetch more than $60m at auction in London next month, according to Euronews.

Femme nue couchée (Naked woman reclining), completed in 1932, reimagines Marie-Thérèse Walter – a proficient swimmer, where Picasso never learned to swim – as a graceful, multi-limbed aquatic animal.

The pair met in 1927 when Picasso was 45 years old and unhappily married and Walter was 17. At the time Walter, who lived with her family in Maisons-Alfort, Paris, had no idea who she was.

The following summer, Picasso secretly installed her in a seaside holiday camp close to where he and his wife, the Russian-Ukrainian dancer Olga Khokhlova, and their son were staying.

Described as the Spanish painter's “golden muse”, Walter figures in some of Picasso’s most sensuous and iconic artworks. Though their 14-year relationship remained a closely-guarded secret for years.