Picasso, Composition, La Comédie Humaine (after)
1954

About the Item

Lithograph on vélin du Marais paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, Verve: Revue Artistique et Littéraire, N° 29-30, 1954. Published by Éditions de la revue Verve, Paris and Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York under the direction of Tériade, éditeur, Paris; printed by Mourlot Frères, Paris, September 15, 1954. Excerpted from the volume, This book containing 180 drawings of Picasso executed in Vallauris from the 28th of November, 1953 to the 3rd of February, 1954, with a cover especially designed by the artist for this work, constitutes the double number 29/30 of Verve in the french edition. The American edition is published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. This work has been realized under the direction of Tériade, by the master printers Draeger Frères for the heliogravure in black and white and Mourlot Frères for the lithography, in color its printing was completed in Paris the 15th of September, 1954. The ‘Human Comedy’ series of drawings, which Picasso created in the winter of 1953/54 during a period of intense personal crisis, provides the basis for the ‘Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man’… A thematic analysis of the series not only shows how central the subject of artist and model was within the ‘Human Comedy’ staged by Picasso, but also how Picasso was to link the theme specifically with a questioning of old age and his own late style concerns. The ‘Human Comedy’ reads like a parody of the 1933 Vollard Suite, in which the artist is cast as a classical sculptor at the height of his powers. Twenty years later, we find that the idealized artist-god has shrunken in stature and shows his age in all too human terms. This comical about-face is marked by a significant shift in tone, from the ideals of classicism to a mocking of the grotesque body, which ultimately proves renewing and life-affirming despite the satirical self-caricature. It is this adoption of parody in both his style and his personal point of view that marks the ‘Human Comedy’ as the true beginning of Picasso’s late period. Within these bittersweet drawings, Picasso self-consciously thematizes the issue of an artist’s late style and begins in the process to confront both his own myth and historical identity, though always in masked terms. PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor is one of the most recognized figures of twentieth century art. During his artistic career, which lasted more than 75 years, he created thousands of works using all kinds of mediums. He changed art more profoundly than any other artist of his time. First famous for pioneering cubism, Picasso continued to develop his art with a pace and vitality comparable to the accelerated technological and cultural changes of the twentieth century. Each change embodied a radical idea, and might be said that Picasso lived several artistic lifetimes.

Creation Year:

1954

Dimensions:

Height: 10.25 in (26.04 cm)Width: 14 in (35.56 cm)

Medium:

Lithograph

Movement & Style:

Cubist

After:

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973, Spanish)

Period:

1950-1959