Corrida en Arles: three prints

Throughout his career, Picasso was often frustrated by methods of color printing which required separate plates for each primary color. This laborious approach of creating chromatic range through overprinting did not suite Picasso's spontaneous approach to image making. As a result, with the exception of relief printing in which the artist pioneered a new linocut technique known as the reductive method, color prints are rare in his oeuvre.
Of the few examples of color printing in intaglio, Baer’s first state of Corrida en Arles stands out as his most ambitious. Printed by Jacques Frélaut at Lacourière under the artist’s supervision, Picasso began with a key plate incised with a pocketknife through vernis à la cire, then added two color plates—one red, one yellow. Though more intuitive than conventional methods, the process did not ultimately satisfy him, and the print was never editioned.
The present lot also comprises two proofs in black, from Baer’s second state of the black and yellow plates.