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Lot Essay
On a Saturday in early July 1935 Picasso sat in Roger Lacourière's studio in Paris and began work on a huge copper plate. The image he would conjure up in elaborate detail over the next five days would become known as La Minotauromachie and is recognized as perhaps the most important graphic work of the 20th century. The image is a paradise for interpretation: anecdote mixed with symbolism mixed with myth. Coupled with Picasso's well-known aversion to providing explanations for his art, the layered complexity of La Minotauromachie makes it one of his most intriguing images.
Reading from left to right we see a bearded man climbing a ladder, turning to look over his shoulder at the mysterious scene which plays out beneath him. To his right, two women at a window also look down, and immediately in front of them two doves sit by a shallow drinking dish. Below the window, a young flower girl holds up a candle which illuminates the head of a wounded horse on whose back lies a torera, a female bull-fighter, who appears unconscious. Almost the entire right side of the image is taken up by the enormous figure of a Minotaur, whose outstretched right arm seeks to grasp for or shield him from the candle. Visible beyond the Minotaur on the distant horizon is a half sunken sailboat.
Most interpretations of La Minotauromachie begin by recounting the events in Picasso's life at the time. The period between the winter of 1934 until the summer of 1935 saw almost no artistic production for Picasso, who described it as 'la pire époque de ma vie' ('the worst period of my life'). In June 1935 Picasso's wife Olga had finally left him following her discovery that his young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter was pregnant. This situation provoked a deep sense of inner turmoil in Picasso, which resulted in a depression and artistic paralysis. Printmaking, a practice demanding a significant amount of physical involvement, appears to have provided Picasso with a much-needed activity, which proved to be cathartic. As he was working on the copper plate, through his engagement with the material, strength and creative energy returned to the artist, and as the image began to take shape, Picasso grew in confidence and the composition in potency and complexity.
La Minotauromachie is replete with autobiographical references and the psychological forces at work. As is suggested by its title, the primary symbolic sources are those of the tauromachie (the bullfight) and of the Minotaur, both of which were at the heart of Picasso's personal iconography since the early 1930s. The central group uses images from the bullfight as a visual metaphor for his sexual 'battle' with Marie-Thérèse. We see a fatally wounded horse twisted in pain and fear, its flank gored open. The torera lying on the horse's back bears the profile of Marie-Thérèse. In their in-depth study of the image, Goeppert and Goeppert-Frank identify this figure's swollen abdomen as a reference to Marie-Thérèse's pregnancy. According to their interpretation, Picasso portrays the consequences of the male bull (himself) having fatally 'penetrated' the female horse; the torera has also made a similar sacrifice with her pregnancy. The flower girl, although less physically identifiable as Marie-Thérèse, is her spiritual counterpart. Her calm presence and open display of selfless affection recall why Picasso turned to Marie-Thérèse as his lover and refuge from the repressive conservatism of Olga. Hers are the qualities Picasso now feels he has lost: the innocence and acceptance of Marie-Thérèse's adolescence.
The dark, looming presence of the Minotaur counterbalances the flower girl's attempt to shed light on the scene. Picasso began using the image of a Minotaur as his own alter ego in the early 1930s. In the etchings of the Suite Vollard from 1933-1936 we find a complete life-cycle of the beast, beginning with scenes of the creature as a sexually confident male indulging in bacchanalian, orgiastic celebrations, which then give way to more sentimental works, depicting the Minotaur in a tender and pensive mood, caressing his sleeping lover. These are followed by several images of a blind Minotaur, led through a barren land or the night by a young Marie-Thérèse. The final plates show the beast as a victim, slain in the bullring as the fear-inspiring outsider. These variations on the theme appear to culminate in La Minotauromachie, yet the depiction of the Minotaur is here at its most ambivalent: powerful and violent, yet hesitant, almost helpless and strangely fragile, at once drawn towards and repelled by the candle.
By introducing the Minotaur Picasso takes us from the realm of earthly battles into a world of legend and the surreal. The mythical Minotaur is the physical embodiment of man's fundamentally split nature, torn between rationality and responsibility and desire and lust, between tenderness and violence. By portraying himself as this composite creature living on the boundary of human experience, Picasso hints at a quasi-magical or super-natural element of his own personality as the source of his creativity.
La Minotauromachie is the apotheosis of the themes Picasso developed throughout the 1930s, and together with Le repas frugal (lot 336) and La femme qui pleure of 1937, is considered one of the greatest prints of modern times. Packed with symbols and allusions, the image is as compelling as it is perplexing and contradictory. Picasso believed that art is not created to make sense of the world, but rather to capture the unknowable elementary forces of nature and the human existence. La Minotauromachie has been regarded as a spiritual, allegorical self-portrait, and it remained a deeply personal work for Picasso. His most significant prints tended not to be printed and editioned in the same orderly way that most of his graphic output was. The artist saw these works as private creations and preferred to give impressions only to close friends or important collectors. Even buying one of these masterpieces was no simple process—having sufficient funds was not the only criteria - and many aspiring purchasers went away empty-handed. Picasso carefully selected those who he considered worthy to own a Minotauromachie and therefore a piece of his own mythology. As a result, some unsigned impressions intended to be signed and dedicated, remained with him until his death in 1973. As part of Marina Picasso's inheritance from her grandfather, these were eventually sold through Galerie Krugier, where the present impression was acquired.
Reading from left to right we see a bearded man climbing a ladder, turning to look over his shoulder at the mysterious scene which plays out beneath him. To his right, two women at a window also look down, and immediately in front of them two doves sit by a shallow drinking dish. Below the window, a young flower girl holds up a candle which illuminates the head of a wounded horse on whose back lies a torera, a female bull-fighter, who appears unconscious. Almost the entire right side of the image is taken up by the enormous figure of a Minotaur, whose outstretched right arm seeks to grasp for or shield him from the candle. Visible beyond the Minotaur on the distant horizon is a half sunken sailboat.
Most interpretations of La Minotauromachie begin by recounting the events in Picasso's life at the time. The period between the winter of 1934 until the summer of 1935 saw almost no artistic production for Picasso, who described it as 'la pire époque de ma vie' ('the worst period of my life'). In June 1935 Picasso's wife Olga had finally left him following her discovery that his young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter was pregnant. This situation provoked a deep sense of inner turmoil in Picasso, which resulted in a depression and artistic paralysis. Printmaking, a practice demanding a significant amount of physical involvement, appears to have provided Picasso with a much-needed activity, which proved to be cathartic. As he was working on the copper plate, through his engagement with the material, strength and creative energy returned to the artist, and as the image began to take shape, Picasso grew in confidence and the composition in potency and complexity.
La Minotauromachie is replete with autobiographical references and the psychological forces at work. As is suggested by its title, the primary symbolic sources are those of the tauromachie (the bullfight) and of the Minotaur, both of which were at the heart of Picasso's personal iconography since the early 1930s. The central group uses images from the bullfight as a visual metaphor for his sexual 'battle' with Marie-Thérèse. We see a fatally wounded horse twisted in pain and fear, its flank gored open. The torera lying on the horse's back bears the profile of Marie-Thérèse. In their in-depth study of the image, Goeppert and Goeppert-Frank identify this figure's swollen abdomen as a reference to Marie-Thérèse's pregnancy. According to their interpretation, Picasso portrays the consequences of the male bull (himself) having fatally 'penetrated' the female horse; the torera has also made a similar sacrifice with her pregnancy. The flower girl, although less physically identifiable as Marie-Thérèse, is her spiritual counterpart. Her calm presence and open display of selfless affection recall why Picasso turned to Marie-Thérèse as his lover and refuge from the repressive conservatism of Olga. Hers are the qualities Picasso now feels he has lost: the innocence and acceptance of Marie-Thérèse's adolescence.
The dark, looming presence of the Minotaur counterbalances the flower girl's attempt to shed light on the scene. Picasso began using the image of a Minotaur as his own alter ego in the early 1930s. In the etchings of the Suite Vollard from 1933-1936 we find a complete life-cycle of the beast, beginning with scenes of the creature as a sexually confident male indulging in bacchanalian, orgiastic celebrations, which then give way to more sentimental works, depicting the Minotaur in a tender and pensive mood, caressing his sleeping lover. These are followed by several images of a blind Minotaur, led through a barren land or the night by a young Marie-Thérèse. The final plates show the beast as a victim, slain in the bullring as the fear-inspiring outsider. These variations on the theme appear to culminate in La Minotauromachie, yet the depiction of the Minotaur is here at its most ambivalent: powerful and violent, yet hesitant, almost helpless and strangely fragile, at once drawn towards and repelled by the candle.
By introducing the Minotaur Picasso takes us from the realm of earthly battles into a world of legend and the surreal. The mythical Minotaur is the physical embodiment of man's fundamentally split nature, torn between rationality and responsibility and desire and lust, between tenderness and violence. By portraying himself as this composite creature living on the boundary of human experience, Picasso hints at a quasi-magical or super-natural element of his own personality as the source of his creativity.
La Minotauromachie is the apotheosis of the themes Picasso developed throughout the 1930s, and together with Le repas frugal (lot 336) and La femme qui pleure of 1937, is considered one of the greatest prints of modern times. Packed with symbols and allusions, the image is as compelling as it is perplexing and contradictory. Picasso believed that art is not created to make sense of the world, but rather to capture the unknowable elementary forces of nature and the human existence. La Minotauromachie has been regarded as a spiritual, allegorical self-portrait, and it remained a deeply personal work for Picasso. His most significant prints tended not to be printed and editioned in the same orderly way that most of his graphic output was. The artist saw these works as private creations and preferred to give impressions only to close friends or important collectors. Even buying one of these masterpieces was no simple process—having sufficient funds was not the only criteria - and many aspiring purchasers went away empty-handed. Picasso carefully selected those who he considered worthy to own a Minotauromachie and therefore a piece of his own mythology. As a result, some unsigned impressions intended to be signed and dedicated, remained with him until his death in 1973. As part of Marina Picasso's inheritance from her grandfather, these were eventually sold through Galerie Krugier, where the present impression was acquired.