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Lot Essay
Maya Widmaier-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Some of the most radical artists of the early twentieth century were deeply influenced by artistic practice in other forms, such as music and poetry, and Picasso was no exception. Stéphane Mallarmé’s poetry reassessed the verbal and written language, many finding it difficult to understand, with his tortuous syntax, ambiguous expressions, and obscure imagery. This rigorous reassessment of what was known as stable and unchanging had such an effect on Pablo Picasso, that he began to evolve the visual language and developed his own pictorial syntax during his Cubist period.
Portrait de Stéphane Mallarmé was gifted to Picasso’s close friend, the poet Paul Éluard. The connection between poetry and painting is understated in this charming, elegant yet sketchy portrait, as the friendship between the artist and the poet was incredibly strong, with Picasso even introducing Éluard to his future wife. The pair bonded over their disgust at the bombing of Guernica, in 1937. The painter created his masterpiece, Guernica, and the poet, Victory
of Guernica. Éluard’s admiration for the artist led him to comment, on that occasion: ‘You hold the flame between your fingers and paint like a fire’.
Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Some of the most radical artists of the early twentieth century were deeply influenced by artistic practice in other forms, such as music and poetry, and Picasso was no exception. Stéphane Mallarmé’s poetry reassessed the verbal and written language, many finding it difficult to understand, with his tortuous syntax, ambiguous expressions, and obscure imagery. This rigorous reassessment of what was known as stable and unchanging had such an effect on Pablo Picasso, that he began to evolve the visual language and developed his own pictorial syntax during his Cubist period.
Portrait de Stéphane Mallarmé was gifted to Picasso’s close friend, the poet Paul Éluard. The connection between poetry and painting is understated in this charming, elegant yet sketchy portrait, as the friendship between the artist and the poet was incredibly strong, with Picasso even introducing Éluard to his future wife. The pair bonded over their disgust at the bombing of Guernica, in 1937. The painter created his masterpiece, Guernica, and the poet, Victory
of Guernica. Éluard’s admiration for the artist led him to comment, on that occasion: ‘You hold the flame between your fingers and paint like a fire’.