“Everything you can imagine is real.”
—Pablo PicassoOne early-January day in 1969, a delivery of art supplies arrived at Pablo Picasso’s studio in Mougins, a village just above Cannes. At the time, Picasso was living a relatively secluded life alongside his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, on the French Riviera, immersing himself completely in his artistic endeavours. The shipment of art supplies was contained in large protective panels of corrugated cardboard, which Picasso’s assistants casually lined-up against the studio wall. The blank, but textured packaging drew Picasso in, much alike freshly-stretched canvases that beg to be painted. On January 30th, Picasso could resist no longer and he painted a portrait on a piece of the corrugated cardboard. Over the next three months, he repeated this regularly, creating a series of 29 portraits in total, with the final painting dated May 7th, 1969.
Left: Rembrandt van Rijn, An Old Man in Military Costume, 1630-31, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Image: Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program
Centre: Thomas de Keyser, Portrait of a Gentleman Wearing a Fancy Ruff, 1627, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Image: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2012.12.1
Right: Diego Velazquez, Juan de Pareja, 1650, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Fletcher and Rogers Funds, and Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876-1967), by exchange, supplemented by gifts from friends of the Museum, 1971, 1971.86The moustachioed figures who populate Picasso’s Imaginary Portraits are bedecked with ruffs, hats, wigs and more. Infused with nods to the past, the dandies of these portraits echo the art historical canon, particularly masters such as Rembrandt, Velazquez and Goya. Yet, Picasso invigorates the traditional genre with his quintessential post-cubist visual language, rendering the figures in bright colours and bold, gestural shapes. In their vivid hues of yellow, blue, pink and orange, the portraits evoke a playful sense of costume and caricature, as though Picasso is parodying art history, both adding to it and reimagining it.
Once complete, Picasso was delighted with the series and he sought out a master printmaker to reproduce the works as lithographs. Marcel Salinas, a respected Parisian lithographer, was asked to produce two trial proofs; these impressed Picasso so much that not only did he proceed to commission Salinas for the entire series, but he also decided that Salinas’ name should be published alongside his own, making him the only printer to receive such an honour. Two hand-numbered editions of 250 were produced, one for world-wide distribution and one for France. Once the print series were complete, the lithographic stones were destroyed and the original paintings on cardboard remained in Picasso’s possession.
26
Portraits imaginaire (Imaginary Portraits): four plates
1969
Four offset lithographs in colours, on Arches paper, the full sheets.
all S. approx. 66.2 x 50.5 cm (26 1/8 x 19 7/8 in.)
All numbered 'A 187/250' in pencil, from the American edition (there was also a French edition of 250 marked 'F'), published by Harry N. Abrams, New York, all unframed.
Estimate
£3,000 - 5,000 ‡♠
Sold for £21,590
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Pablo Picasso - Paper and Clay: Online Auction
26 October - 2 November 2023
