PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)

Details

PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)

Le coq

signed and dated bottom right 'Picasso 29.3.38.'--pastel on paper
30½ x 21¾ in. (77.5 x 55 cm.)
Drawn on March 29, 1938

Provenance

Galerie Kätie Perls, Paris
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York
Valentine Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph F. Colin on March 1, 1946

Literature

The New York Times Magazine, Nov. 12, 1939, p. 14 (illustrated)
J. Merli, Picasso, Buenos Aires, 1948, pl. 500 (illustrated)
M. Raynal, Picasso, Geneva, 1953 (illustrated in color, p. 103)
Graphis, 1954 (illustrated in color on the cover)
C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1958, vol. IX (oeuvres de 1937 à 1939), no. 113 (illustrated, pl. 54)
"The Picasso Zoo," The New York Times Magazine, July 5, 1959 (illustrated, p. 31)
C.P. Warncke, Pablo Picasso 1881-1973, Cologne, 1992, p. 419 (illustrated in color)

Exhibited

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Picasso--Forty Years of his Art, Nov., 1939-Jan., 1940, no. 348. The exhibition traveled to Chicago, The Art Institute, Feb.-March, 1940; St. Louis, Museum of Art, March-April, 1940; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, April-May, 1940 and San Francisco, Museum of Art, June-July, 1940.
Richmond, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jan.-March, 1941, no. 186 (illustrated). The exhibition traveled to Philadelphia, Museum of Art, March-May, 1941.
Northampton, Smith College Museum of Art, Some Paintings from Alumnae Collections, June, 1948
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Picasso, 75th Anniversary Exhibition, May-Sept., 1957, p. 80 (illustrated). The exhibition traveled to Chicago, The Art Institute, Oct.-Dec., 1957.
Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Picasso, A Loan Exhibition of His Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints and Illustrated Books, Jan.-Feb., 1958, p. 22, no. 196 (illustrated)
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., The Colin Collection, April-May, 1960, no. 49 (illustrated)
London, Tate Gallery, Picasso Retrospective, July-Sept., 1960, p. 48, no. 152 (illustrated, pl. 33h)
New York, Marlborough Gallery, Inc., Homage to Picasso, Oct., 1971, no. 51 (illustrated, p. 60)
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Pablo Picasso, A Retrospective, May-Sept., 1980 (illustrated in color, p. 354)

Lot Essay

The cock begins to appear in Picasso's oeuvre in a series of five drawings and pastels at the end of March, 1938 (Zervos, vol. IX, nos. 110-114). When a young American painter Xavier Gonzales asked Picasso about them, he replied:

Cocks, there have always been cocks, but like
everything else in life we must discover them -
just as Corot discovered the morning and Renoir
discovered girls. Everything must be discovered -
this box - a piece of paper. You must always leave
the door open - and the main thing is never to turn
back once you pass through that door. Never regret
and never compromise. (A.H. Barr, Picasso, New
York, 1966, pp. 212-214)

In this work the artist seems to have been particularly interested in the variegated bright plumage of the bird, intrigued by its aggressive eyes and its open beak. Here, the rooster, the national emblem of France, is carried to a monumental dimension, and is presented symbolically as a heroic guardian of the Republic.