Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
The Arthur and Anita Kahn Collection: A New York Story
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Les Modèles

Details
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Les Modèles
signed, dated and numbered 'Picasso 21.1.54.III' (upper left)
brush and pen and black ink on paper
9 3/8 x 12 5/8 in. (24 x 32 cm.)
Executed on 21 January 1954
Provenance
Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London.
Acquired from the above by the late owners, May 1971.
Literature
E. Tériade, ed., "Suite de 180 dessins de Picasso, 28 novembre 1953 au 3 février 1954," Verve, nos. 29-30, fall 1954 (illustrated prior to signature).
E. Tériade, M. Leiris, and R. West, intro., A Suite of 180 Drawings by Picasso, Picasso and the Human Comedy, New York, 1954 (illustrated prior to signature).
C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1965, vol. 16, no. 202 (illustrated, pl. 66).
The Picasso Project, ed., Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Fifties I, 1950-1955, San Francisco, 2000, p. 196, no. 54-102 (illustrated).
Exhibited
London, Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., Moore, Picasso, Sutherland, Drawings, Watercolors, Gouaches, March-April 1970, p. 40, no. 38 (illustrated).

Brought to you by

Vanessa Fusco
Vanessa Fusco

Lot Essay

The present drawing was executed by Picasso for Verve, the French art periodical founded by publisher Estafros Tériade in 1937. The magazine, a quarterly review of arts and letters, was lavish in design and challenging in content. Thirty-eight issues were published in total between 1939 and 1960. Tériade featured covers and interiors art by well-known modern artists of the twentieth century.
In 1954, Tériade illustrated one hundred and eighty drawings by Picasso, the present work included, which were drawn in Vallauris that winter. The rich publication reproduced each work in the exact size and chronological order of the original drawings, so as to preserve the integrity of the suite. Tériade remarked that this collection of drawings were Picasso's "finest, boldest, [and] most poignantly human of all he has produced in the course of his long and brilliant career."

More from Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper

View All
View All