Pablo Picasso 1881-1973

The rare complete set of 100 etchings, aquatints and drypoints, 1930-37, 15 signed (12 signed in pencil and three signed in red crayon) from the total edition of 303, printed by Lacourière, published by Ambroise Vollard, Paris, on Montval laid paper, watermarked Vollard or Picasso, each sheet with full margins and deckle edges, in good, fresh condition, very pale paper discoloration at extreme edges of sheets

Acquired by the present owner from Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris.

The following 15 plates are signed by the artist:

Femme se Reposant  (B. 143)

Trois Femmes Nues pres d'une Fenetre (B. 176)

Sculpteur et Modele Debout (B. 177)

Sculpteur et Modele Agenouille (B. 178)

Minotaure Caressant une Femme (B. 191)

Scene Bachique au Minotaure (B. 192)

Minotaure Caressant une Dormeuse (B. 201)

Quatre Femme Nues et Tetes Sculptees (B. 219)

Minotaure Aveugle Guide par une Fillette dans la Nuit (B. 225)

Garçon et Dormeuse a la Chandelle (B. 226)

Taureau Aile Contemple par Quatre Enfants (B. 229)

Faune Devoilant une Femme (B. 230)

Portrait of Vollard, II (B. 231) signed in red crayon

Portrait of Vollard, III (B. 232) signed in red crayon

Portrait of Vollard, IV (B. 233) signed in red crayon

 

 

 

 

 

Picasso was introduced to the art dealer and publisher, Ambroise Vollard, by the artist’s first patron, Pedro Manach, in Paris in 1901; and,  by July of the same year, Vollard had arranged his first exhibition of Picasso’s paintings, following it with an exhibition of the artist’s first blue period works in 1902.  By the end of the decade, Picasso had turned to the art dealer D.H. Kahnweiler, who was more sympathetic towards the artist’s revolutionary advances in painting.  It was Vollard however, who published an edition of fifteen etchings and drypoints of the Saltimbanques Suite in 1913.

 

It was the success of  two publications Balzac's Chef d'Oeuvre Inconnu and Le Metamorposis d'Ovid, both illustrated by Picasso, that inspired Vollard to commission one hundred plates from him.  By March 1937, with the addition of the three portraits of the publisher, the series was complete.  Picasso exchanged the plates with Vollard for some paintings in his private collection.

 

In 1939, Roger Lacourière was employed to print the edition, which consisted of three impressions on parchment (signed and numbered in red ink), fifty impressions on Montval paper, measuring approximately 385 by 498mm (15 ⅛ by 19 ⅝ ins.), watermarked papeterie Montgolfier à Montval, and two hundred and fifty impressions on Montval paper, measuring approximately 340 by 445mm (13 ⅜ by 17 ½ ins.), with watermarks Picasso or Vollard, making a total of 303.  On July 22^nd 1939, whilst returning from showing Picasso some proofs from the set, Ambroise Vollard was tragically killed in a car accident.  Most of the edition, which was still unsigned, was bought subsequently from Vollard’s estate by Henri Petiet.  After the War, Picasso signed some impressions, and a very few complete sets were made up, though the majority of the prints were dispersed separately over the next few decades.

 

Roland Penrose describes Picasso’s Vollard Suite as “one of the greatest triumphs of his graphic art”; he identifies seven themes running through the set.

 

1.)     The Scultptor’s Studio (46)

2.)     The Battle of Love (5)

3.)     The Minotaur (11)

4.)     The Blind Minotaur (4)

5.)     Rembrandt (4)

6.)     Various Subjects (27)

7.)     Portraits of Vollard (3)

 

 

While the twenty-seven individual plates were done over a period of seven years between 1930 and 1936, the plates for the main themes were executed in bursts of creativity during the years of 1933 and 1934.  Although this division into themes provides useful guidelines to the contents of the set, Hans Bolliger notes in his introduction to Picasso’s Vollard Suite that the classification appears to be “somewhat arbitrary”, since among the twenty seven extra plates there are a few which could easily be connected with the main themes, as well as the other subjects wich recur throughout Picasso’s graphic oeuvre.

 

The figure of the Minotaur, a mythological figure with a bull’s head and a human body, plays a central role in the Vollard Suite.  Penrose notes that the arrival of the Minotaur in Picasso’s imagery coincides with his new interest in sculpture, and he further suggests that the nature of the Minotaur, half man, half beast, seemed to correspond with, in certain ways, Picasso’s vision of himself in the role of the sculptor.  However, Picasso’s identification with the contradictory nature of the creature, portrayed in moments of tenderness and violence, carousing and humiliation, also mirrors the strains experienced in his personal life, which in turn affected his work at the time.  The development of his relationship with Marie-Thérèse Walter, whom he had met in 1927, and the increasing estrangement form his wife, Olga, came to a head in June 1935, when his mistresses’ pregnancy could no longer be kept a secret and his wife walked out with their son.  The Minotaur’s blindness can be seen then as a metaphor for Picasso’s familial and artistic crisis in 1934-35.