Pablo Picasso Spanish, 1881-1973

Picasso was fascinated by the Corrida and often attended Bullfights. In 1961 the artists Secretary, Jaime Sabres, published the book “A Los Toros avec Picasso”. To accompany the book Picasso made a suite of 3 black and white and one colour lithographs. Unsigned and unnumbered were included within the text of the book which was made in a large edition. In addition to these separate suites, of all 4 pieces, were made in an edition of 50 signed and numbered works from which our example comes. When first presented the Publisher, Andre Sauret, asked Fernand Mourlot to suggest to the artist the “he put a little colour in the plates”. Picasso obliged by colouring “Le Picador” with wax crayons from a box of 24. Fernand Mourlot told proudly that his atelier succeeded the difficult task of printing 24 colours - plus black - that the artist had used. He concluded: “This time, I believe, it was our great friend (Picasso) who was a little surprised”.

An example is in the Collection of the Musee Picasso at Barcelona, dedicated to Sabartes and dated “Paris, le 14.1.53”