Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881 - 1973).
Title: "Nature morte - l'affaire Caillaux".
Medium: Papier colle (collage) and charcoal drawing on paper.
Date: Composed 1914.
Dimensions: Overall size: 7 11/16 x 11 3/8 in. (195 x 289 mm).
Lot Note(s): Signed and dated in ink, verso; collector ink stamps, verso. Executed on light cream double sketchbook page laid paper. The full sheet. Overall good condition; repair in the upper left corner where a restoration (by the Artist?) of paper loss was completed by gluing a piece of paper to the recto and another piece of paper to the verso over the paper loss; the area of the loss is approximately 1 1/2” x 2 1/2” at its widest; the paper covering the loss is 2” x 3 3/16” recto and 2 1/8” x 3 1/4” verso; the expected fold in the middle of the sheet with corresponding staple marks; paper loss lower left corner; light toning to the edges; hinging marks verso, one visible recto; presents better than this rendition would suggest. Provenance: If you have a genuine interest in bidding on this work kindly send an email to:
[email protected] for provenance information and additional image(s). Comment(s): A recent auction sale of a work comparable to our example is “Nature morte à la pipe et aux dés,” c1913-14, collage, pencil, pen, and gouache on paper, 3 7/8” x 3 1/4,” sold for $184,855 (€150,000) at Christie’s Paris, March 22, 2018, lot #7. ‘Of all the manifestations of Picasso's art throughout his long career, his Cubist collages are among his most inventive and aesthetically original. Picasso, along with Georges Braque, pioneered this artistic movement and introduced the avant-garde to new levels of pictorial abstraction. Still-lifes were usually their favored subjects and never before had this age-old theme been interpreted with such a radical approach. Picasso experimented with the deconstruction and reconstruction of form and the manipulation of space in these compositions, exposing the physical properties of the objects he was depicting. “Nature morte - l'affaire Caillaux,” executed 1914, is a wonderful rendition of this theme. In this picture, Picasso presents the objects on the table as they would appear from several different vantage points, providing a spectacle that would not otherwise be possible in a two-dimensional representation. During the second decade of the 20th century, Picasso's Cubism developed from fractured, highly abstract "analytical" depictions of form to more legible "synthetic" compositions that incorporated elements of collage. “Nature morte - l'affaire Caillaux” exemplifies the tenets of this later phase of Cubism.’ (paraphrased, wth our thanks to Chrisite’s Paris). Image copyright © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [30194-2-160000]
