Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)
Title: Tete de femme de face (Small))
Portrait of Francois Gilot
Medium: Original etching, 10th May 1945, on laid paper, dated in the stone above left.
Sizes:
280 x 190 mms (paper size); 162 x 90 mms (Plate size) - SMALLER PAPER
References:
Bloch, Georges : Pablo Picasso, catalogue de l'oeuvre gravé et lithographié, 4 vol. Berne: Kornfeld and Klipstein. 1968-1979. (I:373)
Goeppert, Sebastian, Herma Goeppert-Frank & Patrick Cramer. Pablo Picasso: Catalogue Raisonné des livre Illustres. Geneva: Patrick Cramer. 1983. (43.1)
Goeppert, Sebastian, Herma Goeppert-Frank & Patrick Cramer. Pablo Picasso: The Illustrated Books. Geneva: Patrick Cramer. 1983. (43.1)
Mallen, Enrique, ed. Online Picasso Project. Sam Houston State University. 1997-2017. (45:046)
Note: A single plate was made by Picasso on the 10th May 1945 showing two portraits of Francois Gillot, one below the other. The upper portrait was accompanied by a lower portrait, which was dated in the stone and described by Baer as a “Remarque”. There was a first state printing of the etching made on a number of different papers before aciding the plate , of 18 proofs, and a further 25 proofs made, after aciding the plate, on verge de Van Gelder paper, signed by the artist and numbered. This last edition was made as an illustration for the book by Paul Elouard “A Pablo Picasso” published by Trois Collines, Geneva, in 1945.
For the Second State the etching plate was cut in two and various editions were published, some from the cancelled and some from the uncancelled plate - but only of the upper etching and not for the lower Remarque. Until now no examples of strikings from this plate, to my knowledge, are known to exist. They are not described in Baer, Bloch or Online Picasso Project.
In Baer (Volume III, page 297) it states that the two coppers still exist and that the copper for the remarque was in the possession of Mr Gerald Cramer who was the publisher of “Tros Collines”. Patrick Cramer, the publishers son, sold us the works and advises that a small number of proofs were struck at the time by his father from the Remarque copper from which our examples come and he will be sending us a letter to this effect. We have purchased a total of four such unsigned proofs from him. All are struck on the same unwatermarked paper. Three of these are on larger sheets and one on a smaller sheet. All are from the same etching plate but the three examples on the larger paper were over-inked and have a remarkably different appearance.
Printed by: Lacouriere
Provenance: Patrick Cramer Gallery, Geneva.
