Description:** Please note – this specific work will be referenced and illustrated in the Yale University Art Museum 2008 Exhibition Catalogue detailing the prints of Pablo Picasso.
Picasso’s Le Peintre is a marvelously large work executed in a unique painterly style, with fine attention to detail, and artistic stylization that mimics a monotype print. Created using hand applied Pochoir coloring, this is a unique and exciting technique in printmaking that closely resembles painted watercolors. The pochoir technique is applied to the finished print, thereby intensifying color and making each print unique. The pochoir in this print can be found along the shadow of the painter’s head, canvas, and arm.
Created in 1963, this work was published by Guy Spitzer and contains his publisher’s embossed blindstamp in the lower left side of the image. Printed on Arches Cadastre, France, watermarked paper, there is a guaranteed authentic signature by Picasso in blue crayon in the lower right hand side of the work. The plate has also been signed by Picasso in the lower left. Stamp on verso reads, ‘Pablo Picasso Le Peintre Tirage Signé par l’artiste numeroté et limité a 350 exemplaires cette épreuve port le No 296.’
Composed entirely in a cool palate of blues, greens, and browns, this work features a male artist intently working on his canvas. The implied hurried brushstrokes in the piece, particularly in the artist’s arm, create a “snapshot” like image—the artist captured in a moment of artist inspiration. This work is further rarified because it has been documented by the Alan Wofsy Picasso Project, along with a letter from publisher Guy Spitzer to Wofsy discussing this edition, written in July 1973.
Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
It is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the final sale of the work).
1. Wofsy, Alan, The Picasso Project, The Sixties II, 2002, recorded with letter from Guy Spitzer on page x.
2. Letter from Guy Spitzer to Alan Wofsy, July 1973, discussing Le Peintre.
About the Framing:
Conservation framed in a robust aged-gold and black moulding. The lively and undulating rhythm of the moulding adds to the intrinsic movement within the piece. The lithograph is complimented by white linen wrapped mattes and matching gold inner fillet. All materials are archival and museum quality. This custom frame is finished with an archival Plexiglas® cover.
