Original lithograph in black ink printed on wove paper with full margins. Hand signed in colored pencil red & blue "Picasso" lower right. Dated in the plate at upper right, "24-5-57, dimanche" (date and day printed backwards). Edition 99/200. A fine impression in excellent condition.

Image: 16" x 20 5/8", sheet: 19 3/4" x 26"
Catalogue reference: Mourlot 291; Bloch 830

This composition was published for the benefit of the newspaper "Le Patriote" in Nice. Born in Malaga, Spain. Pablo Picasso was the dominating figure of early 20th century art. He studied at Barcelona and Madrid, and in 1901 set up a studio in Montmartre, Paris. His "blue period' (1902-1904), a series of striking studies of the poor in haunting attitudes of despair and gloom, gave way to the gay, life-affirming "pink period' (1904-1906), full of harlequins, acrobats, and the incidents of circus life. He then turned to brown, and began to work in sculpture. His break with tradition came with "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' (1906-1907, New York), the first exemplar of analytical Cubism, a movement which he developed with Braque (1909-1914). From 1917 he became associated with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, designing costumes and sets. A great innovator, he also illustrated classical texts, and experimented in sculpture, ceramics, lithography, etching, woodcut, and linocut.