Quatre têtes de faune

The present mosaic is part of a series on which Picasso collaborated with American mosaicist Hjalmar Boyesen. The pair first met in Paris, in August 1944, while Boyensen served in the army during the French liberation. Although the circumstances prompting their second meeting remain uncertain, they were auspiciously reunited over a decade later on the Côte d'Azur, when Picasso lived there with his then-partner Jacqueline Roque. Boyensen worked in a ceramic studio in Cannes, where he had relocated with his wife Dorothy after the war. The two couples became good friends and began spending time together. In 1957, the artists collaborated on an exciting project together: Picasso would make sketches at Boyensen’s studio, and they would later turn them into mosaics. The composition’s vignette-like structure, resembling a film strip, is fitting in the context of Cannes and its festival, which Picasso attended over the years. Furthermore, translated into this medium, the faune, a recurring motif in Picasso’s oeuvre, takes on a new twist – its playfulness accentuated, and Mediterranean origins recalled.