Picasso / Vollard

---

Published by Adelson Galleries, 2015
Softcover, 69 pages, fully illustrated throughout

Picasso/Vollard
Prints from the Stock of the Artist's Publisher
Presented by Marc Rosen Fine Art

The relationship between Picasso and art dealer, Ambroise Vollard began in Paris in 1901, when Vollard gave the artist his first one-man show. Vollard later acquired the copper plates for Picasso’s 1904-05 series of prints evoking the lives of street performers, which he published in 1913 in a large edition, known as La Suite des saltimbanques. A small number of proofs of each subject were printed in 1905, and Vollard had two or three additional proofs printed from each plate before having the plates steel-faced. The exhibition includes several proofs, including the finest impression known of a classic Blue Period image of a seated clown, Le Saltimbanque au repos.

Another exceptional early work is a unique impression of two woodcuts from 1907, L’Aigle and Le Poussin, carved on one block, and hand-printed by the artist in gouache on a single sheet. Only a small number of the separately printed images exist, and no other example is known of the two subjects printed together.

The Suite Vollard, one of the greatest print projects of the 20th century, began early in 1934, when Picasso wanted to buy a Renoir and a Cézanne from Vollard. They agreed to exchange a body of the artist’s works on copper for the two paintings. Eventually, the suite grew to 100 works in a wide range of etching and engraving techniques, encompassing some of Picasso’s most significant themes (artist and model, the battle of love, the minotaur). Thirty-six of the best-known subjects from the deluxe edition of 50 of the Suite Vollard will be on view.

An extremely rare, signed deluxe edition set will be shown by appointment only.

Warren Adelson