Pablo Picasso, (1881-1973)

Original copper plate and engraving from Carmen

Original copper plate and engraving from Carmen (C. 51; B. 531-568; Ba. 822), 1949
Original copper plate with cancellation marks, with matching engraving on Montval wove paper, a proof of Plate XXVI (before the plate was cancelled), aside from the total edition of 320, one of 38 engravings for the illustrated book Carmen, with text by Prosper Mérimée, published by La Bibliothèque Française/printed by Atelier Roger Lacourière,Paris, copper plate inscribed lower left Golf-Juan 6.5.48 XX, etching with full margins, both framed. (2 works)
copper plate 14 x 11in (35.5 x 27.9cm)
etching 9 x 5 1/2in (23 x 14cm)
sheet 13 x 10in (33 x 25.5cm)

Provenance
Galerie Michael, Beverly Hills
Richard Evenson, The Carmen Collection, Portland
Acquired from the above by the present owner

In May, 1949 Picasso worked on the copper plates that would illustrate the book Carmen. He had moved in 1948 to the beach town of Golfe-Juan (on La Côte d'Azur, near the city of Antibes) with his young lover, Françoise Gilot, who had just given birth to their second child, Paloma, the previous month (their son Claude was born in 1948). The quiet tranquility of this period is reflected in these elegant, minimal portraits. The copper plates reveal that although Picasso inscribed the date, plate number and location (Golfe-Juan), when these proofs (and the subsequent editions) were pulled, the inscriptions were trimmed off, probably as to not distract from the serenity of the portraits.