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Lot Essay
Conceived in 1950, Grand vase aux danseurs is one of the finest examples of Pablo Picasso’s early ceramic works, produced just three years after the artist began working alongside Suzanne and Georges Ramié at the Atelier Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris. Picasso enjoyed the interplay between the two dimensional and the three dimensional that ceramics offered, the manner in which they incorporated both sculpture and painting, while still remaining functional items. In these early examples from the 1950s, his inventive spirit is on full display, as he explored and mastered the medium, experimenting with the combination of painting, incising, and the effects of different engobes, to reach a new form of artistic expression.
Vallauris had ancient associations with the art of ceramics—a center for pottery production since Roman times, it was well known for its amphorae, produced from the distinctive local pink and reddish clay. The undulating form, surface decoration and contrasting colors of Grand vase aux danseurs are particularly reminiscent of the ceramics of antiquity. One of just three vases that Picasso created on this large scale, the work features the full-length forms of two flute players, a dancing woman, and a hand-standing acrobat, which flow across the curved surface of the vessel in a manner that recalls classical Roman precedents. Picasso’s renewed fascination with ancient art at this time was rooted in his experiences of the Côte d’Azur: “It’s strange,” he mused, “in Paris, I never draw fauns, centaurs or heroes from mythology… it’s as if they live only here” (quoted in M. McCully, “Painter and Sculptor in Clay” in Picasso: Painter and Sculptor in Clay, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1998, p. 28).
The present Grand vase aux danseurs was formerly owned by the Swiss collectors Marina and Willy Staehelin-Peyer, who built an impressive collection of modern art through the second half of the twentieth century. Alongside works by Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Henri Laurens and Bernard Buffet, they acquired a number of works by Picasso over the years, including a vibrantly colored drawing, Tête de diable (1963), with a hand-written dedication from the artist to Willy and Marina.
Vallauris had ancient associations with the art of ceramics—a center for pottery production since Roman times, it was well known for its amphorae, produced from the distinctive local pink and reddish clay. The undulating form, surface decoration and contrasting colors of Grand vase aux danseurs are particularly reminiscent of the ceramics of antiquity. One of just three vases that Picasso created on this large scale, the work features the full-length forms of two flute players, a dancing woman, and a hand-standing acrobat, which flow across the curved surface of the vessel in a manner that recalls classical Roman precedents. Picasso’s renewed fascination with ancient art at this time was rooted in his experiences of the Côte d’Azur: “It’s strange,” he mused, “in Paris, I never draw fauns, centaurs or heroes from mythology… it’s as if they live only here” (quoted in M. McCully, “Painter and Sculptor in Clay” in Picasso: Painter and Sculptor in Clay, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1998, p. 28).
The present Grand vase aux danseurs was formerly owned by the Swiss collectors Marina and Willy Staehelin-Peyer, who built an impressive collection of modern art through the second half of the twentieth century. Alongside works by Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Henri Laurens and Bernard Buffet, they acquired a number of works by Picasso over the years, including a vibrantly colored drawing, Tête de diable (1963), with a hand-written dedication from the artist to Willy and Marina.