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Pablo Picasso
Jacqueline au chapeau de paille (Jacqueline with the Straw Hat) (Bl. 1073, Ba. 1281)
- Estimate
- $50,000 - 70,000
S. 24 3/4 x 17 1/2 in. (62.9 x 44.5 cm)
Further Details
“They lived in a world of his own creation where he reigned almost as a king yet cherished only two treasures – freedom to work and the love of Jacqueline”i
Pablo Picasso began using the linocut print process in the late 1950s, sixty years after the publication of his first etching. Picasso took inspiration from the masters of European painting, reimagining past traditions and exploring their timeless themes with modern techniques. He interpreted common imagery from artists like Manet, Degas, Goya, and the Old Masters like Cranach and Rembrandt. Using the rich printmaking medium of linocut, he re-explored portraits of women, the reclining female nude, the bullfight, elaborate still lifes, and most notably his second wife and muse Jacqueline Picasso née Roque. Photojournalist and friend to the artist, David Douglas Duncan, noted in his book Picasso and Jacqueline that Jacqueline never sat and posed for Picasso, but rather he observed her movements and styles in their daily life, giving him the ability to emanate her beauty and grace in his art. Jacqueline continued to make appearances in Picasso’s prints, ceramics, and paintings until his death in 1973; his adoration for her is evident in all his works.
“Jacqueline’s gift to Pablo – after her total love – seemed to be tranquility ”ii
Picasso was fascinated by linocut and its immediacy; the ability to carve a sheet of linoleum and have a print soon after. Art historian Donald H. Karshan remarked “The linocut was considered too limited, too unsophisticated a method to be used by mature artists… Until a fortuitous combination of circumstances, and the ravenous aesthetic appetite of Pablo Picasso, turned this innocent technique into an innovation of the first magnitude.”iii Picasso notably pioneered the use of his now-signature ‘reduction’ technique in the medium; instead of carving a block for each color he intended to print, the artist would cut and use one block for the entire edition, carving the linoleum as new colors were added to the print, building up to a final image from lightest to darkest color. This technique became the preference of Picasso. “He discovered that by printing in strong colors from the same block, after cutting away the unwanted parts, he could overprint more economically and obtain a density of color and texture which gave entirely new possibilities to the process.”iv With the use of linocut and his reduction technique, Picasso regained control of his artistic process, no longer stymied by the delays of sending etching plates to Paris to proof. Picasso completed over a hundred linocut prints across a decade, only ceasing so the artist could begin his monumental ‘347’ print series with the Crommelynck brothers.
i David Douglas Duncan, Picasso and Jacqueline, p. 9
ii Donald H. Karshan, Picasso Linocuts 1958-1963, p. 50
iii Ibid, p. VII
iv Roland Penrose, Picasso: His Life and Work, in Pablo Picasso Experiments in Linogravure, p. 35
Full-Cataloguing
Pablo Picasso
Spanish | B. 1881 D. 1973One of the most dominant and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was a master of endless reinvention. While significantly contributing to the movements of Surrealism, Neoclassicism and Expressionism, he is best known for pioneering the groundbreaking movement of Cubism alongside fellow artist Georges Braque in the 1910s. In his practice, he drew on African and Iberian visual culture as well as the developments in the fast-changing world around him.
Throughout his long and prolific career, the Spanish-born artist consistently pushed the boundaries of art to new extremes. Picasso's oeuvre is famously characterized by a radical diversity of styles, ranging from his early forays in Cubism to his Classical Period and his later more gestural expressionist work, and a diverse array of media including printmaking, drawing, ceramics and sculpture as well as theater sets and costumes designs.