IFPDA 2022

Pablo Picasso

Portrait de jeune Fille, d'après Cranach le Jeune. II

Linocuts printed in colours, 1958

An exceptional group of 11 working proofs and a final image of ‘Portrait de jeune Fille, d'après Cranach le Jeune. II’, Picasso's most sought-after linocut. This ensemble is particularly interesting because it is Picasso's most complex use of multiple linocut blocks, one for each colour, in contrast to the reductive method of making linocuts in several colours from a single block, which the artist later adopted. The artist did not invent the reductive technique as recorded in most of the literature, but he learnt it from his young linocut printer, Hidalgo Arnéra

Our group has impressions in a single colour from all five blocks, out of which the black and 'bistre' blocks, are the most important in defining the image. The group also includes various combinations of two and four colours, together with an impression of the definitive combination in all five colours. The group includes 12 impressions in all

Provenance

Archives of Imprimerie Arnéra
Private Collection, Switzerland
According to Roland Penrose, a British art historian and close friend of Picasso, this linocut subject was inspired by Portrait of a young Lady, a 1564 panel by Cranach le Jeune in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna of which an illustration is provided here. Picasso never went to Austria but was sent a postcard of the panel by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, his dealer, which triggered his creativity.

Picasso cut five separate linocut blocks for this subject. Brigitte Baer, author of the ‘catalogue raisonné’ of Picasso graphic works, claims that Picasso first cut the black block and that to print the final image, the blocks were printed in the following order: bistre, yellow, red, blue and black. However Cranach portrait that does not include blue. By cutting the new lino block, Picasso not only unifies the middle of the composition but also creates some lines of force that echo the woman’s mask-like face. This way he directs the viewer’s gaze on the upper and lower areas of the linocut, hence on the woman’s sphinx like expression and the explosion of red in her skirt. This departure of colour from the panel also demonstrates how Picasso takes inspiration from an Old Master but also refused to be cowed by him.

Picasso’s reinterpretation of Cranach’s Portrait of a Young Lady is equally faithful and personal. He adds the colour blue and forgoes all the intricate details. Gone are the contrasts of the multiple fabrics and laces as well as the profusion of jewellery and precious stones while the details of the curtain and the young girl’s shadow are carefully retained. In this wonderful reinterpretation one sees Picasso’s need to confront the Old Masters, to submit the past to his modernity. Standing between the Variations sur Les Ménines d’après Velazquez of 1957 and the series of Déjeuner sur l’herbe d’après Manet de 1959-62, this subject, in linocut rather than in oil, is in its way a technical tour de force in interpreting the art of the Renaissance.
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1. Second state of two of 'Cinquième plateau: le Noir'
Pablo Picasso

La Célestine

Etching with aquatint, drypoint and scraper, 1970

Signed in red crayon.

Numbered '4/9' and dated 'le 9.9.70.' in red crayon.

Watermark: B F K RIVES

Sheet Size: 74.8 x 105.1cm (29.4 x 41.4in)

Provenance

Given by Picasso to Paul Puaux - Director of the Festival d’Avignon from 1971 to 1979.

The heirs of Paul Puaux, France.
Frank Stella

Ambergris from Moby Dick Deckle Edges Series

Lithograph, etching, aquating, relief, engraving and silkscreen printed in colours, 1993

Axsom 217
Signed, numbered '13/32' and dated '93 in black felt pen

Image Size: 103.8 x 138.5cm (40.9 x 54.5in)

Provenance

Bobbie Greenfield Fine Art, Inc., Venice, CA, U.S.A.

Private Collection, U.K. (bought from above in January 1994)
Pablo Picasso

Jacqueline Lisant, de Trois Quarts

Linocut printed in black, 1962

Not in Bloch; Baer 1294 first state of three, I (of III)

An impression printed in black on Arches. Baer records only one such impression of the first state and only two impressions in total of the first state, and six across all states however we know of seven impressions

Inscribed by the printer, Hidalgo Arnéra '14.2.1962 / Tete de Femme / 1er état / essai noir sur fond blanc', in pencil

Stamped in ink on the verso: 'Imprimerie Arnéra / Non Signé / Archives'

Watermark: Arches

Image Size: 63.5 x 52.5cm (25 x 20.7in)

Sheet Size: 75 x 62cm (29.5 x 24.4in)

Provenance

Archives Imprimerie Arnéra
Robert Ryman

Four Aquatints and One Etching

Aquatint, 1991
Signed in pencil accross the image

Numbered '33/80', and with an upward arrow upper margin, in pencil

From the portfolio 'Four Aquatints and One Etching' published by Parasol Press, New York

Image Size: 77.2 x 78.2cm (30.4 x 30.8in)

Provenance

Victoria Miro Gallery, London, U.K.

Private Collection, U.K. (bought from above in April 1994)
Stephen Chambers

The Occupants

Etchings printed in colours, 2017

A complete set from the edition of 30

Signed in pencil, and numbered 'A/P 1/3' in pencil

The series can also be sold as individual impressions

Printed and published by Paupers Press

Sheet Size: 45 x 40 cm (22.2 x 29.9in)

Provenance

Stephen Chambers' Studio
Jasper Johns

0 Through 9

Lithograph, 1976

Signed and numbered '58/63' in pencil, and printed from two plates

Printed by Gemini G.E.L. for the Showhegan School of Painting and Sculpture

Image Size: 7.6 x 6.4cm (3 x 2.5in)

Sheet Size: 25.1 x 19.1cm (9.9 x 7.5in)

Provenance

Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, U.S.A.

Private Collection, U.K. (bought from above in March 1979)
Edward Kienholz

For $256.00

Watercolour over stamping ink with fingerprint on cardboard, 1972

Signed in pencil

In its original, artist's metal constructed frame

Image Size: 32.3 x 41cm (12.7 x 16.1in)

Provenance

Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Inc., U.S.A.

Private Collection, U.K. (bought from above in September 1994)
Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Wrapped Monument to Leonardo

Photolithograph with collage of fabric and thread, 1971

Schellman-Benecke 40

Signed in pencil

Numbered '46/99' in pencil, and titled in the plate 'Wrapped Monument to Leonardo (Project for Piazza della Scala, Milano)'

Published by Edition 999, Zurich, and printed on wove paper by Rives Couronnes mounted on cardboard

Image Size: 68.5 x 55.4cm (27 x 21.8in)

Sheet Size: 74.6 x 55.4cm (29.4 x 21.8in)

Provenance

Private Collection, U.K.
Wrapped Monument to Leonardo

Lithograph printed in colours, 1971 Schellmann-Benecke 41
Signed in pencil

Numbered '895/999', and titled in the plate 'Wrapped Monument to Leonardo (project for piazza della scala, Milano)'

Image Size: 68.4 x 55.4cm (26.9 x 21.8in)

Sheet Size: 74.5 x 55.4cm (29.3 x 21.8in)

Provenance

Private Collection, U.K.
Pablo Picasso

Pique. III

Linocut printed in colours, 1959
Bloch 0920; Baer 1243, third state of three, B.b. (of C)

Signed in pencil

'Epreuve d'artiste' of the definitive form outside the edition of 50, printed by Imprimerie Arnéra and published by Galerie Louise Leiris

Watermark: Arches

Image Size: 53 x 64.1cm (20.9 x 25.2in)

Sheet Size: 62.3 x 75.3cm (24.5 x 29.6in)

Provenance

Archives Imprimerie Arnéra
Richard McLean

Greentree's Sloe Gin from Documenta: The Super Realists

Lithograph printed in black, 1972

Signed and numbered '214/300' in pencil

With the embossed stamp 'BSA', and published by Shorewood Atelier, New York, NY

Included in a portfolio of 10 lithograph by ten super-realists that was commissioned by Documenta in Kassel, Germany, 1972

Image Size: 55.6 x 75.1cm (21.9 x 29.6in)

Sheet Size: 60.1 x 78.4cm (23.7 x 30.9in)

Provenance

Private Collection, U.K.
Stephen Chambers

I Bite & Sting... (and You'd Better Believe It)

Etchings printed in colours, 2020
A complete set from the edition of 25

Signed and numbered '14/25' in pencil

The series can also be sold as individual impressions

Printed by Nutmeg Editions and published by the artist

Image Size: 28 x 29.5cm (11 x 11.6in)

Provenance

Stephen Chambers' Studio
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Caterpillar
Artist Unknown

Laundry

Etching

Date unknown

Sheet Size: 40.9 x 45.5cm (16.1 x 17.9in)

Provenance

Private Collection, U.K.

IFPDA 2022: Javits Center, 665 West 34th Street, New York City | Booth 110 | 27 to 30 Oct. 2022

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