Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)
Au Vieux Sculpteur au Travail I (Old Sculptor at Work I), c. 1933
Medium: Etching on Montval Laid Paper with Vollard Watermark
Edition: Edition of 260
Artwork Size: 10.5 x 7.6 in
Framed Size: 28.5 x 24.25 x 1.5 in
This work is Framed
Etching on Montval Paper, from the Vollard Suite, c. 1933
Image Size: 10.5 x 7.6 inches
From the small margins edition at 260 proofs, unsigned
Published by Vollard, Paris
Printed by Lacourière, Paris
Pablo Picasso’s Vollard Suite represents a major landmark in Picasso’s extensive and prosperous career as a printmaker. Comprised of 100 etchings created in the neoclassical style, the Vollard Suite offers us a rare glimpse into Picasso’s brilliant artistic psyche. Named after its publisher, renowned art dealer and critic Ambroise Vollard, the Vollard Suite etchings remains Picasso’s most celebrated graphic series to date.
Picasso’s work on the Vollard Suite spans a seven-year period, from 1930-1937. However, it was not until 1934, when Picasso asked to buy a Renoir and Cezanne from Vollard’s private collection, that a deal was struck between the two men – Picasso would create a series of 100 etchings and hand over the publishing rights to Vollard in exchange for the Renoir and Cezanne paintings. As Vollard had already published Picasso’s first etched series The Saltimbanques (Bloch 1-15) in 1914-1915 to great acclaim, he was eager to collaborate with Picasso on another series of Picasso etchings. Picasso created 97 etchings from 1930-1936 and added three additional etched portraits of Ambroise Vollard to complete the Vollard Suite in 1937. The Picasso Vollard Suite edition was printed on Montval paper made with a specially designed ‘Vollard’ signature watermark.
In 1939, the same year that the Picasso Vollard Suite was printed, Vollard met an untimely death in a tragic car accident. This tragedy, combined with the onset of World War II, greatly delayed the distribution of these Picasso etchings. At some point between 1942-1945, Henri Petiet, another renowned art dealer, purchased Picasso’s Vollard Suite etchings for 10,000 francs. In the 1950s, Petiet asked Picasso to hand sign these works. Picasso, who felt that his side of his bargain with Vollard had already been upheld, was reluctant to hand sign the prints and asked for additional compensation. He signed the Vollard Suite etchings sporadically from the 1950s-60s in a haphazard and disorganized fashion, resulting in a significant number of impressions that were left unsigned. Pablo Picasso’s Vollard Suite is a remarkable achievement in the graphic arts that offers great insight into Picasso’s turbulent and passionate personal life. As Michael Taylor, director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College states, “The Vollard Suite functions as a visual diary of the artist’s creative thinking and preoccupations during a pivotal moment in his career. These works illustrate the two worlds to which Picasso owed allegiance at this time, namely the harmony and order of classical art and the surrealist world of dreams and the imagination” (Dartmouth College, 2013).
