.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
The present, unique work dates from 1931, which saw Picasso throw himself into experimenting in and innovating with sculpture of all shapes, sizes and media ahead of the planned retrospective at Galerie Georges Petit and Kunsthaus Zürich the following year to commemorate his fiftieth birthday. Considering this decided shift in the first half of that year, the artist told Roland Penrose: "Pictures are never finished in the sense that they suddenly become ready to be signed and framed. They usually come to a halt when the time is ripe, because something happens which breaks the continuity of their development. When this happens it is often a good plan to return to sculpture" (quoted in J. Richardson, A Life of Picasso: 1917-1932, New York, 2007, vol. III, p. 442).
While Picasso's sculpture was predominantly large and volumetric around this time, the present work's attenuated form shows the influence of his sometime collaborator since 1928, fellow-Spaniard Julio González, whose thin iron sculptures have become his hallmark. What is more, armature (here the form itself) was of special interest to the artist at this juncture--Picasso embarked on an enlarged La grande statue (Tall Figure) in late 1931 after the mythological figure Daphne, who metamorphosed into the laurel tree in flight from the god Apollo. While contemporary images of the work's initial state survive, the sculpture itself did not: "Whatever Picasso used as an armature for the Tall Figure, it failed to hold up. The piece fell apart. Unfortunately, González was no longer around to repair it" (ibid., p. 444).
While Figurine is an unusual departure from the rounded busts of Marie-Thérèse which consumed Picasso for much of 1931, it may also suggest the influence of the American sculptor Alexander Calder, who moved to Paris in 1926, and in 1929 enjoyed his first one-man show of wire sculpture at Galerie Billiet (fig. 1). In 1935, Picasso revisited the sculptural possibilities of the filigree form, using intricately woven and knotted lengths of string and fine rope to bind together a raucous assemblage of found objects (fig. 2). This sculpture which, like the present work, remained in the artist's collection throughout his life, is today housed in the Musée Picasso.
(fig. 1) Alexander Calder, Policeman, 1928. Private collection. BARCODE: 28859598
(fig. 2) Pablo Picasso, Figure, 1935. Musée Picasso, Paris. 28859598
The present, unique work dates from 1931, which saw Picasso throw himself into experimenting in and innovating with sculpture of all shapes, sizes and media ahead of the planned retrospective at Galerie Georges Petit and Kunsthaus Zürich the following year to commemorate his fiftieth birthday. Considering this decided shift in the first half of that year, the artist told Roland Penrose: "Pictures are never finished in the sense that they suddenly become ready to be signed and framed. They usually come to a halt when the time is ripe, because something happens which breaks the continuity of their development. When this happens it is often a good plan to return to sculpture" (quoted in J. Richardson, A Life of Picasso: 1917-1932, New York, 2007, vol. III, p. 442).
While Picasso's sculpture was predominantly large and volumetric around this time, the present work's attenuated form shows the influence of his sometime collaborator since 1928, fellow-Spaniard Julio González, whose thin iron sculptures have become his hallmark. What is more, armature (here the form itself) was of special interest to the artist at this juncture--Picasso embarked on an enlarged La grande statue (Tall Figure) in late 1931 after the mythological figure Daphne, who metamorphosed into the laurel tree in flight from the god Apollo. While contemporary images of the work's initial state survive, the sculpture itself did not: "Whatever Picasso used as an armature for the Tall Figure, it failed to hold up. The piece fell apart. Unfortunately, González was no longer around to repair it" (ibid., p. 444).
While Figurine is an unusual departure from the rounded busts of Marie-Thérèse which consumed Picasso for much of 1931, it may also suggest the influence of the American sculptor Alexander Calder, who moved to Paris in 1926, and in 1929 enjoyed his first one-man show of wire sculpture at Galerie Billiet (fig. 1). In 1935, Picasso revisited the sculptural possibilities of the filigree form, using intricately woven and knotted lengths of string and fine rope to bind together a raucous assemblage of found objects (fig. 2). This sculpture which, like the present work, remained in the artist's collection throughout his life, is today housed in the Musée Picasso.
(fig. 1) Alexander Calder, Policeman, 1928. Private collection. BARCODE: 28859598
(fig. 2) Pablo Picasso, Figure, 1935. Musée Picasso, Paris. 28859598