Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Le Couple, 1951, drypoint on chine volant, signed lower right margin and numbered (5/XI) lower left margin. References: Bloch 690, Baer 889. Presumably an impression of Baer’s 889 Bb before the edition of 400 included in the book Dons des Feminines. 8 1/2 x 6 5/8, the sheet 19 1/5 x 12 3/4 inches.

In good condition except for extensive rippling in the (very wide) margins, probably resulting from the process of printing on this paper (not affecting the image), a printer’s crease at right, a reinforced thin spot verso in the margin. Full margins with archival mounting.

Provenance: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

A fine, carefully printed impression.

In this fascinating drypoint Picasso seems to invoke the sensibility of the Vollard Suite classical etchings (of the ’30’s) within a cubist framework (of an even earlier period). This is amazing – and it works – but of course Picasso continued to amaze throughout his career.

Pablo Picasso (Spanish 1881 – 1973), Femme Nue a la Jambe Pliee, etching, 1931, signed in pencil; from the Suite Vollard (Bloch 141, Geiser 208), from the edition of 300. Printed by Lacouriere, Paris; published by Vollard, Paris, with the Picasso watermark. In excellent condition, with full margins, 12 3/8 x 8 3/4, the sheet

A fine, clear impression.

Although the nude is of course featured, a close inspection reveals another face, just to her right (see detailed photos).  Femme Nue is one of the earliest of the Suite Vollard etchings, done in a pure etching line, and having classical elements, but also perhaps some cubist aspects as well. Of course we don’t know precisely what Picasso was thinking when making these early Vollard etchings, but it’s been generally thought that they represented a sort of pictorial diary, his musings about women, models, and their relationship to the artist (himself), at the beginning of the decade of the ’30’s.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Sculpteurs, Model et Sculpture, etching, signed in pencil, 1933, from the Suite Vollard (Bloch 149, Baer 300), total edition of 310. In very good condition, with only the slightest trace of discoloration in the margins and margin edges, archival matting. With wide margins, 7 1/2 x 10 3/8, the sheet 13 3/8 x 17 5/8 inches.

A fine, delicately printed, clear impression, on laid paper with the Vollard watermark.

About half of the 100 prints in the Vollard Suite series – 46- are focused on the artist and his studio.  Perhaps the most fascinating are those in which Picasso uses a spare, neo-classical idiom to portray models and the artist, together with the modernist sculpture that the artist has created – as in this etching.

A very fine, strong impression, with the burin and drypoint work at the right effectively counterposing the aquatint work evident at the left (in the figure of Marie Therese).

Femme Nue Assise was one of Picasso’s earliest works using aquatint, and the development of the print was quite complex.  Initially the plate was aquatinted, using the sugar lift aquatint process (Picasso brushed the figures on the plate with an ink/sugar syrup mixture; the plate was then varnished and dipped in water, and where the sugar melted, the varnish is stripped off; then the plate is grained and dipped into acid. The area where the acid bites into the grain is where he brushed the plate, and this will hold ink and can be printed).  The woman at the left (Marie-Therese, his mistress at the time) remained in aquatint, untouched, while Picasso worked on the images of the man at the right in etching, drypoint, with a scraper, and with an engraving tool (the burin).   He developed the plate in 6 states before the final state which was editioned for Vollard.

It’s not clear whether Marie is dreaming of the three images of the same man, or he is dreaming of her.  Each of the men has a different expression.  Picasso biographer and scholar Brigitte Baer has suggested that since she remains intact through the extensive work that Picasso did on the plate, she is the dream image of these three bearded sculptors.

Pablo Picasso, Model Contemplating Sculpture,  etching, signed in pencil, 1933, a fine impression, published by Vollard, from the Vollard Suite, edition of 310, Bloch 175, Geiser 328, printed by Lacouriere, with the Picasso watermark.  In pristine condition, with small margins, 11 7/8 x 14 1/2 inches.

A fine, delicately printed, clear impression of this fascinating composition. The model at left (looking rather sculpted herself) contemplates a sculpted group – a horse with attending figures – as well as the sculpteur. Small faces below the sculpture view the scene, or perhaps the viewer. This is one of the more complex compositions among the artist and model group of the Vollard Suite etchings, generally as here drawn in a neoclassic idiom.