Aquatint and drypoint on Montval laid paper, 1934. A printer's proof, aside from the edition of 260 on paper with smaller margins and with the Picasso or Vollard watermark, before the beveling of the plate and with sharp, square plate corners. Printed by Roger Lacourière, Paris. Published by Ambroise Vollard, Paris.
I. 24.7 x 34.7 cm; S. 33.4 x 45.6 cm. The sheet with a Galatea watermark.
Bloch 225; Baer 437. From the fourth, final state.
Provenance: The Swedish artist and master printer active in France, Nils "Furto" Björklund (1912-2005), and associated with the Paris printers Roger Lacourière and Jacques Frélaut.
"Minotaure aveugle guidé par une fillette dans la nuit” is among the most painterly and technically accomplished plates of the 100 different etchings of the Vollard Suite, a series Picasso produced from 1930 to 1937 for Parisian publisher Ambroise Vollard, and widely-considered a pinnacle of modern printmaking. The suite spans Picasso's passionate, sometimes tumultuous affair with his then young model and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter. Many of the earlier works in the series portray a sculptor in his studio among his work--alluding to the classical myth of Pygmalion. The later prints become increasingly dark and foreboding as both his relationship with Marie-Thérèse became troubled and Europe moved toward World War II.
This is the last image in a series of sheets from the Suite Vollard which treat the theme of the minotaur; in this final iteration of the subject, the once powerful mythological beast has been deprived of his sight and is dependent on a little girl for direction. In the painstakingly-rendered aquatint, achieved through a dramatic use of chiaroscuro, Picasso depicted the minotaur protagonist, who in earlier images seduced beautiful women, as enfeebled, and he transformed the lovely female into a compassionate young guide, depicted here in child-like size and clutching a white dove in her folded arms.
The onset of World War II and the sudden death of the publisher Vollard in a car crash in the south of France in 1939 delayed the distribution of this pioneering suite, which is among the most important modern print series created by a single artist, until the 1950s. While over 300 sets were printed by Lacourière, both proofs and complete suites are exceedingly scarce, prints from this series now are often found individually and are those from either the regular edition of 260 with smaller margins or the deluxe edition of 50 on larger sheets of paper. Picasso did not sign the complete edition uniformly and as distributed, instead he signed some sets as well as individual prints over the ensuing decades, and both pencil signed and unsigned impressions are in existence.
Folgerecht vorhanden.
