On 20th January 1957 Pablo Picasso met the Norwegian painter and sculptor Carl Nesjar in what was to prove the first of many meetings and a rich artistic collaboration. Nesjar was a skilled sculptor who was experienced with a particular type of concrete construction with an additional element of artistic embellishment or sculpting. This artistic process, known as Naturbetong, was particularly experimental and, therefore, likely to be of considerable interest to the master of modern art who was at the time looking for a means of creating large scale works of art for public spaces. When Nesjar showed Picasso the photographs of his Naturbetong works in Oslo Picasso exclaimed: ‘You should have been here last week. I have been waiting for you!’ (Picasso quoted in, Sylvette, Sylvette, Sylvette. Picasso und das Modell (exhibition catalogue) Bremen, 2014, p. 200). The two artists would continue to work together for the next seventeen years producing seminal works, including a series of sandblasted murals onto the H and Block Government Buildings in Oslo and large sculptures of Picasso’s muse Sylvette. Another product of this momentous coming together of creative minds was Picasso agreeing to produce an edition of 250 lithographs for the Norwegian art club Aktuell Kunst.

This October, Sotheby’s is pleased to present three works coming fresh to the market from the family of Carl Nesjar, to whom they were gifted. Each work on paper is executed atop a frontispiece, one of which has been removed from a book whilst the other two remain inside the original book bindings, and they all reflect the playful and tirelessly inventive imagination of Picasso.

Executed in 1966, the present work reflects the spontaneity of line and playful optimism that characterises Picasso’s mature works. Here Picasso chooses to draw in felt-tip pens conveying his endless appreciation of new mediums and desire to constantly create with whatever was at hand. The figure in the present work wears a crown of sorts and Picasso depicts this surrounding the title of the book in which this is illustrated. The printed title Picasso i arbete becomes a part of the composition and demonstrates the artist’s keen sense of humour.