Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881 - 1973).
Title: "Suite de 180 dessins de Picasso".
Medium: Color lithograph.
Date: Composed 1954.
Dimensions: Overall size: 26 3/8 x 20 1/16 in. (670 x 510 mm). Image size: 24 x 15 3/4 in. (610 x 400 mm).
Lot Note(s): Signed in pencil, lower right. White wove paper. Wide margins. Fine impression. Good condition; some handling marks and minor creases. Literature/catalogue raisonne: cf. Czwiklitzer 78 (1970 ed.); cf. Czwiklitzer 89 (1981 ed.); cf. Rodrigo 26. Comment(s): Rare when signed, rarer yet if our premise as follows is correct. According to both Czwiklitzer and Rodrigo, the edition of 1,000 was issued in two sizes. They both list the larger size as 70 x 47cm; Czwiklitzer catalogues the smaller size as 61 x 39.5cm, whereas Rodrigo states 61 x 40cm. Neither indicates the edition size of each. We have located 15 sales of this poster in the past 25 years; apparently only two sales were of the larger size. In two of the remaining 13 sales (Bonham's, London on 10/02/2006, lot #432), and Jeschke, Hauff, van Vliet, Berlin, on 11/19/2005, lot #462), the auction house catalogued the edition as 125 and as the smaller size image (Bonhams stating that the image was printed to the sheet edges), leading one to believe the larger size edition might have been 875. Furthermore, Rodrigo states that, in addition to the size, the two print runs "also differed in that one carried the following text at the top: 'pour le paraitre le 15 le de octobre de 1954'" [to be published on the 15 of October 1954]. He does not state if this text was on the larger or smaller version. The Bonham's sale of the smaller version (v.s.) bears this text. A Bonham's sale of 03/26/2007 was of the larger version, did not bear the text, and had margins. It would appear then that only the smaller version bears the text, with the edition size being 125. The images reproduced in both the Czwiklitzer and Rodrigo catalogues are of the larger version, with margins, and without text. However, our larger version does bear the text. As such, it appears to be an unrecorded proof of the larger version with text, perhaps a unique example. Poster created (and exhibition held) during Picasso's lifetime, with Picasso authorizing its printing. Printed by Mourlot, Paris. Image copyright © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [26995-5-1600]

Good condition; some handling marks and minor creases