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Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
PABLO PICASSO La Mère et les Enfants.
Lithograph, 1953. 482x752 mm; 19 1/4x29 3/4 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, aside from the edition of 50. Signed in pencil, lower left. A superb, richly-inked impression of this large lithograph.
An authentication from Maya Widmaier Picasso, Paris, April 17, 1992, accompanies this lot.
Among Picasso's (1881-1973) most expressive works are his oeuvre of lithographs, which allowed the artist to see his own evolution of technique and revise compositions fluidly, like drawings. Though Picasso had produced a few lithographs in his early career, it was not until he began his partnership with the printers Mourlot Frères, Paris in November 1945 that the artist rediscovered the medium that he would re-invent at mid-century through his incessant experimentation and creativity. Picasso would challenge the Mourlot printshop with his designs, which sometimes incorporated collage elements and even fingerprints. However demanding, the collaboration would culminate in over 400 prints in 20 years. Picasso was in a state of constant revision and the majority of his lithographs have multiple states, some more than ten. The progressions show Picasso's creativity at play even with only the subtlest reworkings. He would work for long stints at a time at his lithographs and he would eventually lay claim to a corner of the Mourlot workshop, a refuge from his own notoriety.
The free and buildable nature of lithography allowed Picasso the liberty to explore ideas and follow them to fruition. He remarked that, "The movement of my thought interests me more than the thought itself." This intimate family scene shows the artist's then partner, the artist Françoise Gilot (born 1921), resting on a sofa, while their two children, Claude (born 1947) and Paloma (born 1949), play with their toys on the floor. Bloch 739; Mourlot 239; Reuße 625.
