Pablo Picasso 1881-1973

Three lithographs, fresh impressions, 1948, the extremely rare set of first through third (final) states, the first and second states one of five impressions, the third state aside from the edition of 50, each inscribed pour Castor and initialled by the printer Fernand Mourlot, states two and three also inscribed épreuve exposition, the first state in pencil verso, the second and third state in ball-point pen verso, the first state on Arches paper, the second and third states on cream japan, the full sheets with deckle edges on each side, in very good condition, the third state with some minor creases associated with this kind of paper

First state: In good condition, a tiny scuff mark lower left, only visible in a raking light, a tiny crease at upper right tip of sheet, inscribed 'Figure 2 etât pour castor FM 131' (sic) and further lightly inscribed in pencil with the date '21st November' Second state: In good fresh condition, a very slight pressure mark along extreme right edge of sheet, very slight creasing at lower right tip of sheet, inscribed 'Épreuve d'exposition pour Castors Paris, Bonn FM' Third state: In good fresh condition minor handling creases in lower right corner and lower edge of sheet inscribed 'Épreuve d'exposition pour Castors Paris, Bonn FM'
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The impression of the first state is incorrectly inscribed verso by Mourlot deuxiemé etat. It is  the first state as recorded in the catalogue raisonne.

Picasso had experimented with lithography during the 1920s, producing a handful of works in the medium.  However, the results were nothing remarkable in comparison with the extraordinary outpouring of works produced at the Mourlot workshop in rue de Chabrol, Paris beginning on 2^nd November 1945.

It had been over fifteen years since Picasso's last lithograph, but he was to find that lithography offered him the creative opportunity to merge the concerns of both painting and drawing.  With characteristic relish, Picasso applied his abundant energy to fully exploiting, indeed subverting the medium, to his own artistic ends.  For an initial period of four months, he immersed himself completely in producing lithographs at the Mourlot studio, often working on several lithographic stones at one time.  What appealed to him was the way in which the lithographic process allowed him to develop and evolve a subject whilst preserving each stage of its development in a way which painting did not permit: "If it were possible, I would leave it as it is, while I began over and carried it to a more advanced state on another canvas.  Then I would do the same thing with that one.  There would never be a finished canvas, but just the different 'states' of a single painting, which normally disappear in the course of work.".[1] 

Picasso's renewed interest in lithography coincided with his great love affair with Françoise Gilot, and her portrait was one of the first and most enduring motifs of the lithographs produced in the second half of the 1940s.  He experimented endlessly with her image producing instantly recognisable portrait heads to abstract compositions which retained only the occasional familiar feature.  The vast majority shared the mesmerising full-frontal pose which was particularly effective in the black and white rendering of the printed medium.  The first state of Figure Stylisée from 21^st November 1948 is one of five portrait heads of Françoise with the same flat black background, which Picasso produced over just two days.  He then subsequently re-worked the image over the period of one month gradually paring down the image and removing large areas of the background.   

Works in all media from this period, for example, the painting Woman in an Armchair (with ermine coat) (Fig 1) also executed in the autumn of 1948, reveal the way in which "the relationship between line and form in Picasso's work is changing (...) [The line] appears in shorter and more powerful gestures, with jerky and abrupt impulses whose accelerated articulation often seems harnessed between stops. (...) The facial shapes in particular are set against each other expressively: the closing is answered by an opening, the curve by a straight line, the equivalent by a differentiation."[2]  This progression is equally evident in Figure Stylisée.  The lines are harder, more deliberate and reveal a certainty of purpose which is less obvious in the early portraits.

Picasso continued to produce lithographs in large numbers well into the mid-fifties, but it is the works from the second half of the 1940s which afford us the greatest insight into Picasso's working process and his sense of developing a theme.   The three states of Figure Stylisée articulate perfectly Picasso's developing style, combining his current passion for lithography with the other great passion of his life: Françoise Gilot.

[1] Picasso, 1945, cited in Clinton Adams 'Picasso's Lithographs, 1945-49' in Exhibition Catalogue, Picasso Graphic Musician, London, 1998, p. 46.
[2] Erich Franz, 'Françoise Gilot: Personification of a style', in Pablo Picasso, The Time with Françoise Gilot, ed. ed. Markus Müller, Bielefeld, 2002, p. 33.