PABLO PICASSO | LE POUSSIN (BAER 214)

Leo and Gertrude Stein, Paris

Gertrude Stein Estate c/o Alice B. Toklas, Paris, 1946-1967

Acquired from the above on December 14, 1968 by Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney

Sotheby's, New York, 19th and 20th Century Prints, 29 April 1999, lot 40      

Sotheby's, London, A Private View: Property from the Country Home of Christopher Cone and Stanley J. Seeger, 30 October 2018, lot 133

New York Museum of Modern Art; Baltimore Museum of Art; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada (as Gertrude Stein and Picasso and Juan Gris)

San Francisco Museum of Art, Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and her Family, 1970-71

This impression is cited in Bernhard Geiser/Brigitte Baer, Picasso Peintre-Graveur, Tome I (Berne: Editions Kornfeld, 1990), p. 354, 214

Edward Burns, ed. Gertrude Stein on Picasso (New York: Liveright, 1970), p. 20, 124

From exotic parakeets to screeching owls, feathered friends were ever-present in Picasso’s life. He inherited a love of birds from his father, the professional painter and pigeon breeder José Ruiz y Blasco. Together, they drew and painted their pet rock doves from life, a tradition Picasso continued throughout his prolific career. This charming chick, printed in blue, was one of several subjects Picasso experimented with while preparing illustrations for Apollinaire’s Le Bestiaire. Though this fledgling was not included in the final publication, this rare, exceptional woodcut has enjoyed much admiration. Boasting impressive provenance, the present work was owned by Gertrude Stein, then Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, before touring North America in exhibitions at public institutions including MoMA, the National Gallery of Canada, and San Francisco Museum of Art.