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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW YORK Pablo Picasso Tête de femme No. 6: Portrait de Dora Maar 1939-42 Aquatint and drypoint in colors, on cream Montval laid paper watermark Picasso, with full margins, I. 11 3/4 x 9 3/8 in. (29.8 x 23.8 cm); S. 17 1/2 x 13 3/8 in. (44.5 x 34 cm) the only state, one of 106 total impressions pulled in 1939 or 1942 (there were also 11 trial proofs with varying intensity of colors), printed by Lacourière, Paris, the palest mat staining (mainly visible along the left sheet), otherwise in excellent condition, framed.
Provenance David Tunick, Inc., New York Literature Georges Bloch 1338; Brigitte Baer 654 Catalogue Essay This [image] is one of a series of seven portraits of [Dora] Maar intended as illustrations for a book project published by Ambroise Vollard. But with Vollard’s death, as the result of a car accident in 1939, the book never appeared. The text was to be the manuscript version of Picasso’s Surrealist-oriented poetry, with corrections and deletions left in place. Deborah Wye, A Picasso Portfolio Ð Prints from the Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010, p. 132. In the early 20th century, Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), and a few other artists had used the colored aquatint process with impressive effects. But by the 1930’s, it had lost its status as an art medium in its own right and was used almost exclusively by printmakers for reproductions of paintings. Picasso and Lacourière, however, collaborated to bring it to a technical level that would enable artists to pull final prints with it as a matter of course. Due to Lacourièr’s ingenious combination of techniques, the 1939 colored aquatint portraits of Dora Maar evoke the purity and transparency of watercolor. Emmanuel Benador, Picasso Printmaker: A Perpetual Metamorphosis, The City College of New York, 2008, p. 85 Read More Artist Bio Pablo Picasso Spanish • 1881 - 1973 Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso is known for his pioneering involvement in the development of Modernism and co-founding of the Cubist movement. He tirelessly investigated forms of expression with his pictorial vocabulary ranging from vivid naturalism to distorted abstraction, and his prolific output included painting, prints, drawings, ceramics and theatre sets. Endlessly curious, Picasso continually sought innovative creative avenues, experimenting with age-old printmaking processes (etching, lithography, linocut), each of which offered a distinct expressive opportunity of line, tone and mark-making. These graphic techniques, combined with Picasso's idiosyncratic motifs — mythological creatures, Spanish bullfighting scenes and portraits of lovers — resulted in an unparalleled body of printed works that could range from the spontaneously lyrical to the allegorically complex. View More Works