"Picasso may like or detest men, but he adores all animals […]. At the Bateau-Lavoir he had three Siamese cats, a dog, a monkey, and a turtle, and a domesticated white mouse made its home in a drawer of his table. […] In Vallauris he had a goat; in Cannes, a monkey. And as for dogs, there has not been a day in his life when he has been without their companionship. […] If it had depended only on himself, he would always have lived in the midst of a veritable Noah’s Ark." —Brassaï from Picasso and Company, 1966, p. 196
Pablo Picasso and a toad
Provenance
Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, Switzerland, Kunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, teil II, June 16, 2016, lot 446
Literature
Georges Bloch 585 Fernand Mourlot 144 Felix Reuße 448
One 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.
1949 Lithograph, on Arches paper, the full sheet. S. 19 5/8 x 25 3/4 in. (49.8 x 65.4 cm) Signed in red crayon, one of 5 artist and publisher copies which were not numbered (aside from the edition of 50), published by Mourlot, Paris, unframed.