Lot Essay
Sold with an original copy of the book as published by Editions Cercle d'Art, Paris, October 1951 with colour offset reproductions of these drawings. This copy numbered 830 from the edition of 2000.
In December 1950 Picasso executed twenty-nine drawings to illustrate Paul Eluard's collection of poems Le Visage de la Paix.
Both men were active members of the Mouvement de la Paix and Picasso had previously worked on the theme of the dove as symbol of peace, most noticeably in two posters of 1949. Louis Aragon chose a wash drawing of a dove with feathery feet set against a black background to publicise the Congrès Mondial de la Paix, held in Paris, and in July 1949 Picasso drew a dove in flight for the poster of the IIème Congrès de la Paix, held in London in November 1950.
In the Visage de la Paix drawings, Picasso uses varying combinations of a dove and a woman's face to accompany Eluard's poems, which expounded the virtues of peace and the efforts which should be made to maintain it. The dove first appears next to a face without features, which slowly appear as the bird draws nearer and nearer. The sequence climaxes when the dove and face become one, which accompanied Eluard's lines
"Je connais tous les lieux où la colombe loge
Et la plus naturel est la tête de l'homme"
Le Visage de la Paix was to be the last time which Picasso and Eluard worked together. Eluard died one year after the book was published.
In December 1950 Picasso executed twenty-nine drawings to illustrate Paul Eluard's collection of poems Le Visage de la Paix.
Both men were active members of the Mouvement de la Paix and Picasso had previously worked on the theme of the dove as symbol of peace, most noticeably in two posters of 1949. Louis Aragon chose a wash drawing of a dove with feathery feet set against a black background to publicise the Congrès Mondial de la Paix, held in Paris, and in July 1949 Picasso drew a dove in flight for the poster of the IIème Congrès de la Paix, held in London in November 1950.
In the Visage de la Paix drawings, Picasso uses varying combinations of a dove and a woman's face to accompany Eluard's poems, which expounded the virtues of peace and the efforts which should be made to maintain it. The dove first appears next to a face without features, which slowly appear as the bird draws nearer and nearer. The sequence climaxes when the dove and face become one, which accompanied Eluard's lines
"Je connais tous les lieux où la colombe loge
Et la plus naturel est la tête de l'homme"
Le Visage de la Paix was to be the last time which Picasso and Eluard worked together. Eluard died one year after the book was published.