Pablo Picasso

Vente : Sotheby's, New York, 6 mai 2004, lot 395
Acquis lors de cette vente par le propriétaire actuel

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Œuvres de 1962 et 1963, Paris, 1971, vol. XXIII, no. 3, illustré pl. 2
Carsten-Peter Warncke & Ingo F. Walther, Pablo Picasso 1881-1973, Cologne, 1997, illustré en couleur p. 574
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. The Sixties I, 1960-1963, San Francisco, 2002, no. 62-201, illustré p. 268

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the overmount at two points along the top edge. There are artist's pinholes at all four corners and at the centre of the upper and lower edges. The left and right edges are deckled. Apart from some very light time staining, this work is in very good condition. Colours: The papertone is warmer and the yellow in the crayon tones is stronger in the original.
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dated '16.10.62. II' (upper left), couloured crayons over lithograph on aper. Executed on 16th October 1962.

Les couleurs vives et en vibration de ce dessin sur papier exécuté en 1962 sont caractéristiques de la manière dont Picasso peint ses toiles dans les années soixante, à une époque où, séduit par le chromatisme lumineux et chaud du Midi de la France, l'artiste décide d'y séjourner et d'y passer les dernières années de sa carrière.

Campant les quatre membres d'une famille en habits du dix-septième siècle, il est tout aussi révélateur de la manière dont, à cette date, Picasso a pris l'habitude et le parti de représenter ses personnages dans d'improbables costumes, l'effet étant, en brouillant les repères spatio-temporels, d'en faire sinon un motif universel, du moins un modèle universellement valable. Récurrent pour sa part, le thème de la famille est de ceux qui sont particulièrement chers à l'artiste. Dans ce schéma de filiation, le dessin et les détails de la robe elle-même se retrouvent dans nombre des autoportraits de l'artiste où il se montre en peintre de cour, semblable à Velázquez auquel il voue une admiration fidèle.

Tracé sur une lithographie, ce dessin atteste qui plus est du caractère hautement exploratoire de la démarche de Picasso. Dans ce palimpseste, l'artiste n'hésite pas à se servir des lignes préexistantes et des empreintes laissées sur le papier où il se sert de crayons gras. Le profil de la figure centrale est à cet égard exemplaire, magnifié par de puissants traits verts et jaunes. Si Picasso n'a jamais cessé d'explorer et de faire reculer les limites du possible, ce sont des œuvres de ce genre qui font pressentir toute l'amplitude de son génie.

 

The vivid and vibrant colours of this work on paper, executed in 1962, are characteristic of Picasso's oil on canvas paintings from this decade when, seduced by the luminosity and warmth of the south of France, the artist decided to stay and then spend the latter years of his career there.

Furthermore, with all four members of the family clothed in 17th Century costume this portrait also denotes the artist's habit at that time of representing his characters in improbable garb so as to blur its spatial and temporal parameters and render the motif all the more timeless and universal. The symbol of the family recurs throughout Picasso's œuvre and is amongst those that held particular significance for the artist. With the idea of ancestry in mind, it is interesting to note that details from the present work, and in particular the dress, recall many of Picasso's self-portraits whereby he depicts himself as a court painter in the manner of Velázquez, whom he greatly admired.

Traced over the top of an old lithograph, this drawing attests to the incessantly exploratory nature of Picasso's creative process. The artist unhesitatingly made use of the pre-existing lines and imprints for his later coloured-crayon drawing. The profile of the central figure, for example, is highlighted and outlined by swathes of green and yellow on either side. If Picasso's reputation is founded upon the idea that he never stopped experimenting or pushing the limits of the possible to extremes, it is in works such as this that we perceive the full magnitude of his genius.