Two swashbuckling musketeers feature in the summer sales of impressionist and modern art in London this week. Christie’s and Sotheby’s are both offering late Picasso portraits from 1969 showing soldiers clutching swords, both entitled “L’Homme à l’Epée”. Sotheby’s has put its Picasso on the catalogue cover and estimated it at £6m-£8m; the work carries an “irrevocable bid” symbol, meaning it is in effect pre-sold. Christie’s example is a bit weaker and less colourful, and is estimated at £5m-£7m. It last sold in 2005, when it made £2.7m.

In keeping with the new realities of today’s market, the sales are small, tight and “priced to sell”. Christie’s 45 lots on Tuesday are estimated at £37.75m-£51.65m, while Sotheby’s Wednesday sale fields just 27 lots (est £26.75m-£37.27m). Christie’s cover lot is a light-dappled classic impressionist work by Monet, “Au Parc Monceau” (1878), from a private Philadelphia collection (£3.5m-£4.5m). Apart from the Picasso, Sotheby’s has an excellent group of three Giacometti sculptures, including a beautiful lifetime cast of his wife Annette, from 1962, estimated at £1.2m-£1.8m. And Bonhams, on Tuesday, features Kokoschka’s “London, Chelsea Reach, 1957” (est £700,000-£1m).