Tête de femme No. 3 and No. 5 both come from a series of seven portraits of Dora Maar. The group of prints were originally intended to be illustrations for a book project, to be published by Ambroise Vollard, with Picasso’s Surrealist-oriented poetry filling the pages. Due to Vollard’s untimely death in 1939, the book was never realized and the project survives only in these prints. Each image was printed by Lacourière in an edition of 105, but were never signed nor numbered by the artist.
Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar had an intensely complex personal and artistic relationship that mirrored a volatile period in European history, from the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War to the end of the Second World War. Dora Maar’s influence stimulated one of the most innovative periods in Picasso’s career. She entered the artist’s life following the breakup of his marriage to Olga Koklova, and the birth of his daughter with his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter. At a tumultuous point lacking any productive energy, the pair’s romance sparked new life into Picasso’s creative potential. Maar was an already established fashion and publicity photographer, innovative Surrealist photographer, painter, intellectual and political activist. Their love affair went on to see Picasso paint some of his most famous works, including Guernica and the Weeping Woman.
Dora Maar, Double Portrait with Hat, c.1936-37. Image: John L. Severance Fund/Bridgeman Images Provenance
Frederick Mulder, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014Literature
Georges Bloch 1337
Brigitte Baer 653
A Picasso Portfolio: Prints from the Museum of Modern Art, exh, cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010, No. 103 (illustrated of the back cover)Artist Biography
Pablo Picasso
Spanish • 1881 - 1973
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.
Property of a Distinguished Private Collector
3
Tête de femme No. 5 (Head of a Woman No. 5): Portrait de Dora Maar (Bl. 1337; Ba. 653)
1939-42
Aquatint and drypoint in colours, on Montval paper watermarked Vollard, with full margins.
I. 30 x 23.8 cm (11 3/4 x 9 3/8 in.)
S. 44.5 x 34 cm (17 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.)
One of six impressions pulled without allowing the colours to dry between each run, from the total unsigned edition of 105 (the edition was 80 and 25 artist's proofs), printed by Lacourière, Paris, framed.
Estimate
£30,000 - 50,000 ♠
Sold for £32,760
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Evening & Day Editions
London Auction 21 January 2021
56
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104
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