Gelatin silver print
France, 1966
Brassaï (1899-1985) – French street photographer
With photographer’s ink stamp verso, Faubourg St. Jacques, Paris
Inscribed in blue ink in an unknown hand verso ‘Pic. 386’
Dimensions: 11 5/8 x 9 1/8 in. (29.4 x 23.2 cm.)
Overall dimensions: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm.)
Good condition

Offering an intimate portrait of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, this photograph of Pablo Picasso is straightforward and unassuming. This is but one of the many portraits taken of Picasso by Brassaï over the course of their forty-year friendship. Their sessions together were often filled with conversation centered on the question: What is the dynamic between art and photography? Both artists continually pushed the boundaries of their art with experimentation, influencing many other artists for generations to come.

Executed in 1966, this gelatin silver print has the photographer’s ink stamp verso and is inscribed ‘Pic. 386’. The image measures 11 5/8 x 9 1/8 inches. Several handling creases throughout, pressure marks from handwriting, approximately 5 diagonal striations visible under raking light across image, diagonal crease in sheet at bottom left corner extending approx. 1 inch into image.

Brassaï (Hungarian/French, 1899-1985)

Born Gyula Halasz, Brassaï studied painting and sculpture in the academies of Budapest and Berlin before serving in WWI. After the war, he moved to Paris where he met artists such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. Over the next decade, he documented Paris at night – capturing candid scenes in Montparnasse, populated with artists, streetwalkers, criminals and prostitutes – finding poetry in the derelict. American writer Henry Miller described Brassaï as the “eye of Paris.” The artist compiled his images into his 1933 publication “Paris de Nuit” (Paris After Dark). His inexhaustible dedication to photography earned him many awards and honors during his lifetime, including Most Original Film at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival and the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Legion d’honneur in 1976. He died in 1984, and is now buried in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. Since his death, several large scale retrospectives have been held in honor of his work.