?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
PABLO PICASSO Sculpteur, Modèle et Sculpture assise.
Drypoint, 1933. 318x185 mm; 12 5/8x7 1/4 inches, full margins. The deluxe edition of 50 on large format Montval paper, aside from the regaular edition of 260 on smaller paper. Signed in pencil, lower right. Montval watermark. Printed by Lacourière, Paris. Published by Vollard, Paris. A superb impression with strong burr, notably on the head and hair of the woman in the center.
Ex-collection Henri Petiet, Paris (see Lugt 5031).
The genesis of the Suite Vollard, a collection of 100 etchings by Picasso considered to be among his master printed works, spans more than a decade during the height of the artist's career. According to Johnson, "Picasso completed 97 of the [100] plates during an extended period from September 1930 to June 1936; the 3 portraits of Vollard, added at a later date, were done in 1937.
The title Suite Vollard has led to the erroneous assumption that the 100 etchings had been commissioned by him, as had been the procedure in most of his publications. However, Volard acquired the 97 plates . . . directly from the artist. The were selected by Picasso from his vast graphic oeuvre and presented to Vollard in exchange for several important paintings from Vollard's stock that Picasso wanted to acquire for his private collection. Along with his numerous unissued publications, this Suite remained in untidy stockpiles in Vollard's mysterious cellars. After Vollard's death [accidentally and untimely in a car crash in the south of France in 1939] and during World War II the well-known Paris print dealer Henri M. Petiet acquired the major part of the Suites from the Vollard estate . . . Petiet released most of his Suites to the market shortly after World War II," (Johnson, Ambroise Vollard Editeur, 1977, pages 142-43). Bloch 146; Geiser 297 Bd.
