Still Life with Bottle of Marc

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins

Nature morte à la bouteille de marc, 1911-1912
Still Life with Bottle of Marc

Drypoint
50 x 30.6 cm.; 19 3/4 x 12 1/8 inches
Signed

References:
Geiser 33/b
Bloch 24
Baer 33/b

Notes:

This is Picasso’s major Cubist print in an exceptionally brilliant and well-contrasted impression.  With large margins of at least 3 ¾ inches on each side, and with a deckle edge above and slight trimming elsewhere.  Picasso’s dealer Daniel Henry Kahnweiler published this work in 1912 in an edition of 100 plus a few artists’ proofs, because of this, this drypoint often is dated 1912, the year of its publication.  Baer dates the execution of this work as either August 1911 (in Ceret) or autumn, 1911 (in Paris).

Figure

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins

Figure, November 21, 1948

Lithograph: edition on Arches paper of 50 numbered plus 5 artists proofs
62 x 47 cm.; 24 3/8 x 18 1/2 inches
Signed and numbered

Reference:
Bloch 579
Mourlot 128

Notes:

1. In November of 1948, Picasso returned to Paris and, during a period of eight months, he executed relatively few paintings and concentrated his creative efforts in the medium of lithography.  His efforts reached a sort of frenzy over the two days of November 20 and 21 when he executed a series of  six lithographs Figures (Mourlot nos. 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 and 131).  From that now rare group of lithographs, this Figure, (ref. Mourlot 128) is one of the strongest and most beautiful works.
2. In order to relate Picasso’s lithographs to the history of lithography as a whole, it is essential to understand the similarity of methods and approaches that align him with one earlier lithographer: Francisco Goya (1746-1828).  Both of these Spanish artists loved the vigor of expression found in the works of Velasquez and both found special inspiration in the etchings, drawings and paintings of Rembrandt. Goya and Picasso also shared a fascination with virtually every form of print-making and an interest in experimenting endlessly with all the technical possibilities and problems involved.  In lithography, invented around 1798 and thus well after the deaths of Velasquez and Rembrandt, Goya and then later Picasso each combined aesthetic and technical mastery with extraordinary capacities for inventiveness.  Similar to Rembrandt’s attitude towards the etching plate, Goya and Picasso had a common perception of the lithographic stone as an entity to be obsessively attacked and re-attacked, worked and re-worked until every possible iota of expression has been wrenched from its stony surface.

The Dressed Model

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins

La Pose habillée, March 19 and 26, 1954
The Dressed Model

Lithograph; Edition of 50
55 x 38 cm.; 21 3/4 x 15 inches
Signed and numbered

Reference:
Mourlot 257
Bloch 764

Notes:

1. In addition to the normal reproduction of this work in the complete works catalogue, Pablo Picasso: Catalogue de l’oeuvre gravé et lithographié 1904 – 1967, Georges Bloch also reproduces this work on a full-page of that catalogue (p. 770).
2. There were five remarkable periods in the history of lithography in France.  The first, in the beginning of the 19^th century, was marked by the works of Delacroix, Gericault and Goya, the second, in the middle of the 19^th century, centered on Daumier, while Bonnard, Vuillard and Toulouse-Lautrec dominated the 1890’s.  Dufy and Matisse were the major lithographers in the 1920’s, while Picasso was the great lithographer during the period from 1945 – 1967.  Among Picasso’s lithographs, La pose habillée is an outstanding example.

Picador and Torero

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins

Picador et Torero, Cannes, September 8,1959
Picador and Torero

Linocut in colors
530 x 640 mm.; 21 x 25 1/4 inches
Signed and numbered by the artist

Exhibited:
Pablo Picasso: Works on Paper, R. S. Johnson Fine Art, November 2004: no. 25 and reproduced in color on page 65 of catalogue.

References:
Bloch 906
Baer 1231-II-B-a (Final State)
Picasso: Linoleum Cuts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985: no. 12 and illustrated in color on page 28.
Picasso Linoleum Cuts: Bacchanals, Women, Bulls & Bullfighters, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1963 (1988 edition) no. 3 and illustrated in color on cover and on page 3.

Notes:

This is one of the most accomplished and elegant of Picasso’s linocuts. It is a perfect example of Picasso’s ability to create new forms which in themselves and in their juxtaposition, one with another, have their own aesthetic and artistic beauty.

Head of a Faun

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins

Tête de Faune, February 7, 1962
Head of a Faun

Linocut in colors: Edition of 50
64 x 53 cm.; 25 1/4 x 21 inches
Signed and numbered

Literature:
Picasso: Linoleum Cuts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985: no. 77 and reproduced in color on page 77

Reference:
Bloch 1093
Baer 1291-Bb 2

Notes:

1. This remarkable work was reproduced in color on the cover of: Brigitte Baer, Picasso the Printmaker: Graphics from the Marina Picasso Collection, Dallas Museum of Art, 1983.  This work was a step by step transformation from a Realist portrait of a young boy to that of a multi-layered image of a faun.
2. Baer indicates an edition of fifty plus about twenty artist’s proofs.

Large Nude, Dancing

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881 – 1973 Mougins

Grand Nu, dasant, 1962
Large Nude, Dancing

Linocut in colors
640 x 530 mm.; 25 ¼ x 20 ¾ inches
Signed and numbered

Literature:
Picasso: Linoleum Cuts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985: no. 84 and reproduced in color on page 83.

References:
Bloch 1085
Baer 1309/VI/b/a (from b)

Notes:

1. A very fine impression with pristine colors of one of Picasso’s most powerful and accomplished linocuts.
2. Picasso created his first major multicolored linocut in Vallauris in 1958.  That work, Bust of Woman after Cranach (1957), was made in six colors, each necessitating a separate piece of linoleum.  The resulting linocut was an aesthetic failure in that the colors harmonized poorly.  It was a technical failure as well in that the forms and colors did not correlate satisfactorily as a result of the individual plates not registering correctly.  Part of Picasso’s problem with that work was caused by having to cut and print each lino-block separately.  This lengthy procedure resulted in a discontinuity of the creative process and took away much of the spontaneity, so essential in Picasso’s most successful works.  Through sheer artistic necessity, Picasso was driven to invent a new technique for producing multicolored linocuts.  Instead of using one block for each color, as had been the case in all the various forms of relief printing since the Renaissance, Picasso devised a reductive technique to produce all the colors from only one piece of linoleum on which a preliminary, detailed guide-drawing first had been executed by the artist.  One problem with this method is that, after each color (or “state”) has been printed and the lino-block has been cut away to prepare for the printing of the next color, it becomes impossible to amend or revise the previous state.  In the Italian Renaissance, and indeed in the whole history of relief printing, the techniques utilized had always made it possible for the artist to rework individual color blocks.  In Picasso’s method of the multicolored linocut, however, there was no way to return to a previous state and the work could only be corrected progressively.  Picasso’s unique artistic abilities allowed him to overcome this technical difficulty, a difficulty that he turned into his advantage as evidenced by his increasingly simplified and powerful multicolored linocuts.

Painter Painting His Model

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1773 Mougins

Peintre Peignant sur son modèle, 15 Juillet 1968
Painter Painting his Model, July 15, 1968

Etching: Edition of 50
49 x 56.8 cm.; 19 ¼ x 22 3/8 inches
Signed and numbered

Reference:
Plate 204 from the 347 Series
Bloch 1684
Baer 1700-II/B/b

Notes:

1. The painter and model was one of Picasso’s preferred subjects over his entire career, but particularly during the last decade of his life.  Picasso executed a series of paintings on that subject in 1963.  There followed a number of “painter and model” etchings in 1965-1966.  Finally, the subject was the central element in his 347 Series of etchings of 1968 and then in his 156 Series of 1969-1972.  Since each of these works treats the same subject, but is very different one from another, these various “painter and models” are a perfect demonstration of the creative genius of this artist.
2. This and the other works of the 347 Series of 1968 were printed by Picasso, together with the technical help of master-printmaker Aldo Crommelynck.  Crommelynck had been an assistant in the Paris print studio of Roger Lacourière (1892-1966), where Picasso had been executing intaglio prints in the 1940s.  As Crommelynck tells the story (see: “Recollections on Printmaking with Picasso” by Aldo Crommelynck, pp. 13-17 in: Picasso – Inside the Image, edited by Jamie Cohen, Robert Hull Flemming Museum, U. of Vermont, 1995), he and Picasso one Friday were working together, when Picasso suddenly announced that he was leaving for the south of France and would be back on the following Tuesday.  Picasso, however, never came back. Therefore, in 1963 Aldo Crommelynck and his brother Piero set up a print-making studio in Mougins, not far from where Picasso then was living.  The Crommelyncks became Picasso’s printers and in 1968, executed with him the entire 347 Series including this work.
3. The 347 Series was produced by Picasso over a period of seven months, from March 16, 1968 to October 5, 1968.  During this period, Picasso gave up virtually all of his painting activity in order to devote his time and efforts completely to the production of the etchings in this series.  With his passionate attachment to printmaking as an expressive medium, with his artistic genius and with his hands-on exploration of all techniques, Picasso has made extraordinary advances to be added to that history of experimental printmaking extending from Rembrandt and Goya to Degas and Villon.

Woman At the Spring

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins

Femme à la Source, 1962
Woman at the Spring

Linocut: Edition of 50
52.8 x 64 cm.; 20 3/4 x 25 1/8 inches
Signed and numbered

Reference:
Bloch 1093
Baer 1326/III/B/a (from c)

Notes:
A superb and pristine impression of this major linocut.

Picasso’s Theater, Eros and Women

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins

Le théatre de Picasso: Eros et les femmes, February 11 and 28, and March 3, 16 and 30, 1970
Picasso’s Theater: Eros and Women

Etching and scraper: Edition of 65
51.1 x 64.2 cm.; 20 1/8 x 25 1/4 inches
Signed with signature stamp, annotated: E. A. (épreuve d’artiste), numbered IX/XV

Formerly Collection
Marina Picasso, stamp on verso

Reference:
Number 13 from the 156 Series
Bloch 1868
Baer 1873-IX/B/b

Notes:

1. Over his lifetime, Picasso created various suites of graphic works.  The first of these was the group of fourteen etchings called the Saltimbanques, executed in 1904-1905 and published by Ambroise Vollard in 1913. A second group, dating from 1930 to 1936, totaled ninety-seven relatively unrelated and separately conceived works, all commissioned by Ambroise Vollard.  To these Picasso added three portraits of Vollard.  The resulting 100 etchings are now known as the Suite Vollard. Still later, in a period of seven months extending from March through October, 1968, Picasso gave up most of his painterly activities and produced a series of 347 etchings, now called the 347 Series. Later, between June 1969 and March 1972, Picasso created 156 more etchings now known as the 156 Series.  The 156 Series was Picasso’s last major group of prints.  The editions consisted of 65 impressions each: 50 numbered 1/50 through 50/50and 15 numbered I/XV through XV/XV. Each impression from this series was signed with Picasso’s signature stamp.
2. This work, the thirteenth of the 156 Series, was the most technically complex of the whole series and in fact is one of the most technically complex graphic works created in the history of printmaking.  It was worked and reworked by Picasso in nine separate states, over a period of some fifty days from February 11 to March 30, 1970.

Painter and Model

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins

Peintre et Modèle, October 20, 1966
Painter and Model

Etching and aquatint: Edition of 50
27.5 x 38 cm.; 10 7/8 x 15 inches
Signed and numbered

Reference:
Bloch 1381
Baer 1403-Bb

Notes:

The painter and model was one of Picasso’s preferred subjects over his entire career, but particularly during the last decade of his life.  Picasso executed a series of paintings on that subject in 1963.  There followed a number of “painter and model” etchings, including this one, in 1965-1966.  Finally, the subject was the central element in his 347 Series of etchings of 1968 and then in his 156 Series of 1969-1972. Since each of these works treats the same subject, but is very different one from another, these various “painter and models” are a perfect demonstration of the creative genius of this artist.

Model and Large Sculpture Seen from Behind

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins

Modèle et Grande Sculpture de dos, May 4, 1933
Model and Large Sculpture Seen from Behind

Etching on Montval laid paper with Picasso watermark
44.5 x 33.7 cm.; 17 ½ x 13 ¼ inches
Signed in pencil by the artist

Watermark:
Picasso

Exhibited:
R. S. Johnson Fine Art, Pablo Picasso: Works on Paper, December 2004: no. 12 and reproduced on page 41 of catalogue.

Reference:
Suite Vollard 73
Bloch 186
Baer 345-IV-Bd

Notes:

A very fine impression of this classic Suite Vollard etching.

Woman Resting on Elbow, Sculpture…

PABLO PICASSO
Malaga 1881 – 1973 Mougins

Femme accoudée Sculpture de Dos et Tête barbue, 1933
Woman Resting on Elbow, Sculpture Seen from Behind and Bearded Man

Etching
37.7 x 29.4 cm.; 14 ¾  x 11 5/8 inches
Signed, lower right

References:
Suite Vollard 71
Bloch 184
Baer 343

Notes:

A very fine impression of this classic Suite Vollard etching.