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Lot Essay
Picasso had developed a love for the art and lore of classical antiquity from his trips to Italy in connection with his work for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In 1917, while the artist was in Naples working on the ballet Parade, he visited Pompei, where, according to choreographer Lionide Massine, he "was thrilled by the majestic ruins, and climbed endlessly over broken columns to stand staring at fragments of Roman statuary" (quoted in A. Baldessari, "Pompeian Fantasy", Picasso 1917-1924: The Italian Journey, Milan, 1998, pp. 79-80).
While his stays in Rome and Naples influenced the classical manner that characterized his work during the late 'teens and 1920s, and certain paintings have a decidedly Greco-Roman appearance (see lot 50), Picasso only occasionally dipped into classical mythology and literature for his subject matter. The artist's interest in this field was actually abetted by his fascination with Surrealism and dreams. In 1928 Albert Skira founded an art book publishing house in Lausanne, and was trying to enlist Picasso to illustrate one of his editions. In a meeting with Skira and Pierre Matisse, Picasso began to relate a dream he had about women transforming themselves into fish. The idea came to Matisse that Picasso should illustrate Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Written in Rome in 8 CE during the reign of Augustus, Ovid's poem retold 250 major stories from Greek and Roman mythology. Working from a French version, Picasso began making drawings for this project in September 1930, and made as many as a half dozen versions of each subject. Between 18 September and 25 October he completed the 30 etchings that Skira had requested, in "a style of pure contours, and discreet eroticism, classical forms without excess, even in scenes of violence" (Cramer 19). Many of the etchings bear the image of Picasso's new mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, whom the artist had recently installed in an apartment down the street from the Paris home he shared with his wife Olga and their son Paulo.
Skira published Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide in 1931, and delivered the first copy to Picasso on 25 October, the artist's fiftieth birthday. In 1933 Picasso was at work on another series of etchings, completing a total of 57 between 14 March and 11 June, including forty on the theme of the Sculptor's Studio, which would later be published in the Suite Vollard. Having created a minotaur, a creature from Greek mythology with the head of a bull on the body of a man, for the inaugural cover of a magazine of that name in April 1933, Picasso introduced the man-beast into his etchings in May. Many of the etchings executed during this year continue the "pure contours" seen in the Metamorphoses. Others are heavily hatched and shaded, with abundant detail, and show off Picasso's virtuosic skills as a draughtsman.
The Limited Editions Club, an association of bibliophiles in New York, had been impressed by Picasso's Metamorphoses etchings, and in late autumn 1933 approached Picasso to illustrate a new translation by Gilbert Seldes of Aristophanes' play Lysistrata. Picasso had known Seldes since 1920 and eagerly accepted the commission. The first dated studies, roughly executed in pencil, were done in late November. Shortly after Christmas Picasso embarked on the first of a small group of ink drawings that includes the present work (see also Zervos 8, 155-156, 160-161 and 163). The last of these is dated 18 January 1934; the six published etchings were completed between 13 January and 4 February 1934 (Cramer 24). There are additionally nine etchings not used in the book (Geiser 393-402), as well as 34 drawings that were reproduced lithographically in the text. The Limited Editions Club published the Seldes translation of Lysistrata in 1934 in an edition of 1500 copies, each of which was signed and numbered by the artist. The Heritage Press, New York reprinted the book in 1962.
Lysistrata, the best-known to modern readers among Aristophanes's surviving comedies, was first performed in 411 BCE. It was written to protest the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta, a conflict that was then in its 21st year and had engulfed the entire Hellenic world. The title character and her female friends conspire to refuse to sleep with their husbands until peace is declared. They take over the Acropolis and repulse various attempts by the male populace of Athens to capture them. The Spartans had been similarly undermined; Lysistrata compels mutual compromise and peace is finally declared.
The series of unpublished ink drawings related to Lysistrata were executed in far more elaborate fashion than the etchings or the lithographed drawings that appear in the book, which are essentially linear in Picasso's classical manner. It appears that certain scenes especially appealed to the artist, and he spun off the ink drawings as if to internalize their significance to him, and make them part of a personal mythology. The present drawing shows Lysistrata sharing a glass of wine with her husband Lykon at the conclusion of the play, as the sexes reconcile and rejoice to the strains of a flute-player. The positioning of the two characters is derived from the lithographed drawing on p. 114 (fig. 1); the present drawing is related only thematically to the etching facing it on the right hand page (fig. 2). Picasso appears to have begun this drawing with a simple linear sketch (still visible in the drinking man at upper left). He then overlaid hatched lines and luxuriant detail, recalling the manner seen in some of the Suite Vollard etchings, thus increasing the sense of depth and maximizing the contrast between light and dark areas. The spiral and box motifs on the figure's clothing are derived from Attic vase decoration of the classical period.
Most remarkable is the assurance with which Picasso builds up the figures and deepens the space behind them. Even with the addition of thin and heavier ink washes, no section of the composition has been overworked or has become muddy, and the contours, gestures and expression of each figure are crystal-clear.
The present drawing was completed on the first day of 1934, and very likely represents Picasso's own delight at the beginning of the New Year. As depicted here, the figure of Lysistrata seems much more girlish than she appears in the play, and even with her dark hair, may represent the blonde Marie-Thérèse, who would have been 23 years old at this time. Of course, Picasso, in his art, constantly created visual and psychological fictions into which the dramatis personnae of his life could then be fitted. And such metamorphic fluidity kept expanding, in part under the muse of Surrealism, which demanded even more slippery identities. The black-or-white choice of categorizing a figure as being a portrait or a nonportrait belies the infinite shades of gray with which Picasso could transform not only people into art, but even existing works of art into contemporary people" (R. Rosenblum, "Picasso's Blonde Muse: The Reign of Marie-Thérèse Walter," Picasso and Portraiture, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1996, p. 340).
(fig. 1) An illustration by Pablo Picasso for Lysistrata by Aristophanes, published by The Limited Editions Club, New York, 1934.
(fig. 2) An etching by Pablo Picasso illustrated in Lysistrata by Aristophanes, published by The Limited Editions Club, New York, 1934.
While his stays in Rome and Naples influenced the classical manner that characterized his work during the late 'teens and 1920s, and certain paintings have a decidedly Greco-Roman appearance (see lot 50), Picasso only occasionally dipped into classical mythology and literature for his subject matter. The artist's interest in this field was actually abetted by his fascination with Surrealism and dreams. In 1928 Albert Skira founded an art book publishing house in Lausanne, and was trying to enlist Picasso to illustrate one of his editions. In a meeting with Skira and Pierre Matisse, Picasso began to relate a dream he had about women transforming themselves into fish. The idea came to Matisse that Picasso should illustrate Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Written in Rome in 8 CE during the reign of Augustus, Ovid's poem retold 250 major stories from Greek and Roman mythology. Working from a French version, Picasso began making drawings for this project in September 1930, and made as many as a half dozen versions of each subject. Between 18 September and 25 October he completed the 30 etchings that Skira had requested, in "a style of pure contours, and discreet eroticism, classical forms without excess, even in scenes of violence" (Cramer 19). Many of the etchings bear the image of Picasso's new mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, whom the artist had recently installed in an apartment down the street from the Paris home he shared with his wife Olga and their son Paulo.
Skira published Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide in 1931, and delivered the first copy to Picasso on 25 October, the artist's fiftieth birthday. In 1933 Picasso was at work on another series of etchings, completing a total of 57 between 14 March and 11 June, including forty on the theme of the Sculptor's Studio, which would later be published in the Suite Vollard. Having created a minotaur, a creature from Greek mythology with the head of a bull on the body of a man, for the inaugural cover of a magazine of that name in April 1933, Picasso introduced the man-beast into his etchings in May. Many of the etchings executed during this year continue the "pure contours" seen in the Metamorphoses. Others are heavily hatched and shaded, with abundant detail, and show off Picasso's virtuosic skills as a draughtsman.
The Limited Editions Club, an association of bibliophiles in New York, had been impressed by Picasso's Metamorphoses etchings, and in late autumn 1933 approached Picasso to illustrate a new translation by Gilbert Seldes of Aristophanes' play Lysistrata. Picasso had known Seldes since 1920 and eagerly accepted the commission. The first dated studies, roughly executed in pencil, were done in late November. Shortly after Christmas Picasso embarked on the first of a small group of ink drawings that includes the present work (see also Zervos 8, 155-156, 160-161 and 163). The last of these is dated 18 January 1934; the six published etchings were completed between 13 January and 4 February 1934 (Cramer 24). There are additionally nine etchings not used in the book (Geiser 393-402), as well as 34 drawings that were reproduced lithographically in the text. The Limited Editions Club published the Seldes translation of Lysistrata in 1934 in an edition of 1500 copies, each of which was signed and numbered by the artist. The Heritage Press, New York reprinted the book in 1962.
Lysistrata, the best-known to modern readers among Aristophanes's surviving comedies, was first performed in 411 BCE. It was written to protest the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta, a conflict that was then in its 21st year and had engulfed the entire Hellenic world. The title character and her female friends conspire to refuse to sleep with their husbands until peace is declared. They take over the Acropolis and repulse various attempts by the male populace of Athens to capture them. The Spartans had been similarly undermined; Lysistrata compels mutual compromise and peace is finally declared.
The series of unpublished ink drawings related to Lysistrata were executed in far more elaborate fashion than the etchings or the lithographed drawings that appear in the book, which are essentially linear in Picasso's classical manner. It appears that certain scenes especially appealed to the artist, and he spun off the ink drawings as if to internalize their significance to him, and make them part of a personal mythology. The present drawing shows Lysistrata sharing a glass of wine with her husband Lykon at the conclusion of the play, as the sexes reconcile and rejoice to the strains of a flute-player. The positioning of the two characters is derived from the lithographed drawing on p. 114 (fig. 1); the present drawing is related only thematically to the etching facing it on the right hand page (fig. 2). Picasso appears to have begun this drawing with a simple linear sketch (still visible in the drinking man at upper left). He then overlaid hatched lines and luxuriant detail, recalling the manner seen in some of the Suite Vollard etchings, thus increasing the sense of depth and maximizing the contrast between light and dark areas. The spiral and box motifs on the figure's clothing are derived from Attic vase decoration of the classical period.
Most remarkable is the assurance with which Picasso builds up the figures and deepens the space behind them. Even with the addition of thin and heavier ink washes, no section of the composition has been overworked or has become muddy, and the contours, gestures and expression of each figure are crystal-clear.
The present drawing was completed on the first day of 1934, and very likely represents Picasso's own delight at the beginning of the New Year. As depicted here, the figure of Lysistrata seems much more girlish than she appears in the play, and even with her dark hair, may represent the blonde Marie-Thérèse, who would have been 23 years old at this time. Of course, Picasso, in his art, constantly created visual and psychological fictions into which the dramatis personnae of his life could then be fitted. And such metamorphic fluidity kept expanding, in part under the muse of Surrealism, which demanded even more slippery identities. The black-or-white choice of categorizing a figure as being a portrait or a nonportrait belies the infinite shades of gray with which Picasso could transform not only people into art, but even existing works of art into contemporary people" (R. Rosenblum, "Picasso's Blonde Muse: The Reign of Marie-Thérèse Walter," Picasso and Portraiture, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1996, p. 340).
(fig. 1) An illustration by Pablo Picasso for Lysistrata by Aristophanes, published by The Limited Editions Club, New York, 1934.
(fig. 2) An etching by Pablo Picasso illustrated in Lysistrata by Aristophanes, published by The Limited Editions Club, New York, 1934.