| Signed | No |
|---|---|
| Created | 1948 |
| Size | 15×11 |
| Medium | Etching and aquatint |
| Genre | Modern |
| Presentation | edition of 250 |
D’Apres Velasquez by Picasso
In this Pablo Picasso Illustrated Book, often refered to as “The Gongora Suite,” Picasso was inspired by the compositions of illuminated manuscripts. Picasso copied the 20 sonnets himself, transferred them to copperplates, and then decorated them richly with remarques. These original Pablo Picasso etchings were published in 1948 in an edition of 250, made to illustrate the poems of Luis de Góngora y Argote.
Description
Portrait de Gongora by Pablo Picasso/ D’Apres Velasquez by Picasso
In this Pablo Picasso Illustrated Book, often refered to as “The Gongora Suite,” Picasso was inspired by the compositions of illuminated manuscripts. Picasso copied the 20 sonnets himself, transferred them to copperplates, and then decorated them richly with remarques. These original Pablo Picasso etchings were published in 1948 in an edition of 250, made to illustrate the poems of Luis de Góngora y Argote.
About the Artist
Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Málaga, Spain. The son of an academic painter, José Ruiz Blanco, he began to draw at an early age. In 1895, the Picasso family moved to Barcelona. It was there that Pablo studied at La Lonja, the local academy of fine arts. His association with the patrons of the café Els Quatre Gats in the late 1890s was crucial to his early artistic development in that the café was a nexus of social life among artists, authors, musicians, and the like, as well as the site of several music performances and tertulias (‘literary gatherings’).
In 1900, Pablo Picasso’s first exhibition took place in Barcelona, and in the fall of the same year he visited Paris for the first time. It was in Paris where he observed the paintings of Edouard Manet, Gustave Courbet, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. He settled there in April 1904, and soon his circle of friends included the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, writer Max Jacob, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and art dealers Ambroise Vollard and Berthe Weill.
Picasso’s visual style and choice of subject matter developed dramatically over a short period of time. The time between 1901 and 1904 has come be known as his ‘Blue Period,’ 1905 his ‘Rose Period,’ from 1908 to 1911 his Analytic Cubist phase, and from 1912 forward his Synthetic Cubist phase. The Blue Period is named for Picasso’s color palette at the time, and is distinguished by its subject matter: vagrants, outcasts, prostitutes, and otherwise marginalized people. The Rose Period marked a brightening of Picasso’s palette: pinks, beiges, roses, and light blues. His choice of subject matter followed suit: clowns, harlequins, and saltimbanques (‘circus people’).
