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 easily. Though Picasso had produced a few lithographs in his early career, it was not until he began his partnership with Mourlot Frères, Paris in November 1945 that the artist rediscovered the medium that he would re-invent. 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 mind at work 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. Picasso remarked that 'the movement of my thought interests me more than the thought itself.' Bloch 739; Mourlot 239; Reuße 625.
