PICASSO, Pablo (1881-1973). Eaux-fortes originales pour des textes de Buffon. Paris: Martin Fabiani, 1942. Large 4° (368 x 278mm). 31 etched plates with sugar aquatint and drypoint by Picasso, with a duplicate set of proof plates on chine paper. BINDING DESIGNED BY PAUL BONET, bound by René Desmules, finished by Cochet: dark-blue crushed levant morocco, each cover with a semi-abstract design of a bull's head, inlaid in boxcalf of various light shades, interspersed with nine bright green, orange, red or blue irregularly-shaped inlaid stars, from which emanate single straight gilt fillets, criss-crossing each other over the covers and onto the smooth spine, in the upper half of which meet two of the inlaid horns, the spine lettered 'Buffon' and 'Picasso', cream suede doublures and endleaves bordered in red calf, original wrappers bound-in, edges gilt, original morocco-backed and -edged chemise and slipcase, signed: Paul Bonet, and dated 1952. EDITION LIMITED TO 226 COPIES, THIS NUMBER 20 OF 30 COPIES ON JAPAN IMPERIAL PAPER WITH AN EXTRA SUITE OF PLATES ON CHINE PAPER. This suite includes an extra sugar aquatint and etching entitled La Puce , representing Marie-Thérèse Walter and was only added to the first thirty-six copies of the edition. The plates were printed by Roger Lacourière, the text by Fequet et Baudier. "The Buffon is one of the greatest bestiaries of the 20th century. Picasso began these etchings in 1936 (he had promised them to Vollard, who died before their completion; Fabiani was one of Vollard's associates). It appears that the artist executed them rapidly, and with the utmost freedom. The master printer Lacourière had introduced Picasso... to the lift-ground or sugar aquatint process, which allowed a variety of tones and textures within a limited range. The spontaneity of the plates is attested by the freehand margins, the rapidly drawn line, and the use of fingerprints for textural variety" (Garvey. The Artist and the Book p.158). Picasso selected thirty-one descriptions of animals from the Histoire Naturelle of George-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (originally published in 44 volumes between 1745-1804) as a point of departure for his illustrations, of which only twenty-one are accompanied by Buffon's abbreviated texts, the remainder only by titles. In the proof state, Picasso etched in large letters the name of each animal beneath the image (except that of the wolf). These names are removed in the final state. The work is all the more remarkable when one remembers that it was produced during the German occupation of Paris, a time of great practical difficulties and severely restricted artistic freedom. Picasso's Buffon etchings were enormously influential to Bonet's artistic output. He drew seventeen designs for this work between 1943 and 1966 and this, executed in 1952, during arguably his greatest period, must rank as one of the most succesful unions between illustrator and binder. Bonet has here reinterpreted a specific favoured image of Picasso's whilst also capturing the essence of the whole work. Bonet, Carnets 1017. Cramer 37; Hogben & Watson, From Manet to Hockney (London: 1985) 110; E. Garvey, The Artist and the Book, 1860-1960 (NY: 1982) 231; W.J. Strachan, The Artist and the Book in France (London: 1969) p.340.
PICASSO, Pablo (1881-1973). Eaux-fortes originales pour des textes de Buffon. Paris: Martin Fabiani, 1942. Large 4° (368 x 278mm). 31 etched plates with sugar aquatint and drypoint by Picasso, with a duplicate set of proof plates on chine paper. BINDING DESIGNED BY PAUL BONET, bound by René Desmules, finished by Cochet: dark-blue crushed levant morocco, each cover with a semi-abstract design of a bull's head, inlaid in boxcalf of various light shades, interspersed with nine bright green, orange, red or blue irregularly-shaped inlaid stars, from which emanate single straight gilt fillets, criss-crossing each other over the covers and onto the smooth spine, in the upper half of which meet two of the inlaid horns, the spine lettered 'Buffon' and 'Picasso', cream suede doublures and endleaves bordered in red calf, original wrappers bound-in, edges gilt, original morocco-backed and -edged chemise and slipcase, signed: Paul Bonet, and dated 1952. EDITION LIMITED TO 226 COPIES, THIS NUMBER 20 OF 30 COPIES ON JAPAN IMPERIAL PAPER WITH AN EXTRA SUITE OF PLATES ON CHINE PAPER. This suite includes an extra sugar aquatint and etching entitled La Puce , representing Marie-Thérèse Walter and was only added to the first thirty-six copies of the edition. The plates were printed by Roger Lacourière, the text by Fequet et Baudier. "The Buffon is one of the greatest bestiaries of the 20th century. Picasso began these etchings in 1936 (he had promised them to Vollard, who died before their completion; Fabiani was one of Vollard's associates). It appears that the artist executed them rapidly, and with the utmost freedom. The master printer Lacourière had introduced Picasso... to the lift-ground or sugar aquatint process, which allowed a variety of tones and textures within a limited range. The spontaneity of the plates is attested by the freehand margins, the rapidly drawn line, and the use of fingerprints for textural variety" (Garvey. The Artist and the Book p.158). Picasso selected thirty-one descriptions of animals from the Histoire Naturelle of George-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (originally published in 44 volumes between 1745-1804) as a point of departure for his illustrations, of which only twenty-one are accompanied by Buffon's abbreviated texts, the remainder only by titles. In the proof state, Picasso etched in large letters the name of each animal beneath the image (except that of the wolf). These names are removed in the final state. The work is all the more remarkable when one remembers that it was produced during the German occupation of Paris, a time of great practical difficulties and severely restricted artistic freedom. Picasso's Buffon etchings were enormously influential to Bonet's artistic output. He drew seventeen designs for this work between 1943 and 1966 and this, executed in 1952, during arguably his greatest period, must rank as one of the most succesful unions between illustrator and binder. Bonet has here reinterpreted a specific favoured image of Picasso's whilst also capturing the essence of the whole work. Bonet, Carnets 1017. Cramer 37; Hogben & Watson, From Manet to Hockney (London: 1985) 110; E. Garvey, The Artist and the Book, 1860-1960 (NY: 1982) 231; W.J. Strachan, The Artist and the Book in France (London: 1969) p.340.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
