Provenance

Tamara de Jongh, 2007.

Aspire Art, Johannesburg, 31 October 2016, lot 74.

Literature

George Bloch (1971) Picasso: Volume I: Catalogue of the Printed Graphic Work 1904-1967, Berne: Editions Kornfeld et Klipstein, illustrated on page 240, cat. no. 1143.

Notes

Pablo Picasso, born in Málaga, Spain in 1881, spent his early years surrounded by art. His father, a painter and art professor, recognised Picasso’s talent at a young age and nurtured his creative development. By the time he was a teenager, Picasso had moved to Barcelona, where he became immersed in the city’s Avant-garde scene. In 1904, he relocated to Paris, then the heart of the art world, and quickly became a leading figure in modern art.

Picasso’s career was defined by his constant reinvention, from the melancholic Blue and Rose periods to the revolutionary invention of Cubism with Georges Braque, a movement that shattered traditional perspectives on form and space. His work, whether painting, sculpture, or ceramics, explored themes of war, love, and politics, with the famous anti-war painting Guernica (1937) standing as one of his most iconic and powerful
statements.

Though critics and contemporaries at times questioned his prolific output and stylistic shifts, Picasso’s impact on 20th-century art remains unparalleled. He continued working until his death in 1973 at the age of 91, leaving behind a legacy that forever changed the course of modern art.