Pablo Picasso Artwork Details

 

 

Detailed Description

Edition: 270 - there were also 20 proofs made for collaborators and the Depot Legal.
References: Bloch 470 (Volume 1) ; B Baer. 736. 2nd state.B. - Volume IV - page 27 - Cramer 44 (Pages 124/125)
Size: 309 x 257 mms (Plate size) ; Paper size 331 x 255 mms
Printed by: Roger Lacourier, Paris, France

Note 1: This etching served to illustrate “Dos Contes” a book written in Catalan by Ramon Reventes which contained 4 engravings with burin. The Reventos brothers were amongst the artists oldest friends who he had known in as a youth in Barcelona. The younger brother died young but Picasso admired his writings and when the Catalan,m Ferran Canyameres told Picasso he intended to publish a work the artist suggested “Dos Contes” by his old friend for which he would make illustrations. This present work illustrates the first story : “El Centaure picador” in which the narrator buys the last centaur found in a stable in Piraeus. The Centaur’s mother had died in childbirth and his father had descended into hell “out of sorrow”. The Centaur became a lover of classical literature and beautiful women, he pulls the masters cart, he fights a bull and finally, the closing scene, he tutors the narrators children. During this period generally Centaur’s and Fauns are found often in the artist’s works . Pan and Centaur (The bucolic brothers of the Minotaur) who had kept Picasso company so uch in the 1930’s were still alive and well in the later 1940’s! The cancelled copper plate for this etching still exists.