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PABLO PICASSO Color Lithograph Portrait Imaginaire 1969

Currency:USD Category:Art / General - Paintings Start Price:3,800.00 USD Estimated At:4,500.00 - 5,500.00 USD
PABLO PICASSO Color Lithograph Portrait Imaginaire 1969
Please, note that the auction starts at 5pm UK time and approx. 100 lots will be auctioned per hour.
PABLO PICASSO 1881-1973
Málaga 1881-1973 Mougins (Spanish)

Title: Imaginary Portrait “27.4.69”/ Portrait Imaginaire "27.4.69", 1969

Technique: Hand Numbered Lithograph in Colours on grey paper

Paper size: 65 x 50 cm / 25.6 x 19.7 in

Additional Information: This color lithograph is signed in the plate "Picasso" at the upper left corner.
The work is hand numbered in pencil "A 134/250" at the lower left margin and dated in the plate "27.4.69" (1969) above the signature.
Two editions of the lithographs exist: The "A" edition and the "F" edition. Each consists of 250 lithographs and each piece is numbered 1-250. The "A" edition was reserved for America and the "F" edition was reserved for France. This work is from the American edition.
The paper bears the blind stamp: "Lithographie executee par M.Salinas d'apres une peinture sur carton de Picasso" (Lithorgraphs executes by M.Salinas after a painting on cardboard by Picasso).

In early 1969, art supplies arrived at Picasso's studio in Mougins on the French Riviera. Large panels of cardboard had been used to ship the supplies. The supplies were uncrated and the boxes and other shipping materials were set aside against a wall in Picasso's studio. Rather than seeing large pieces of cardboard, Picasso saw 29 canvases awaiting his brush, and at the age of 87 he created 29 portraits which would come to be known as the Portraits Imaginaire or Imaginairy Portraits. Each portrait was created in gouache with simple and brilliant colors.

Under Picasso's personal supervision, and with the expertise of one of France's leading lithographers, Marcel Salinas, lithographs were created in the image of the 29 original Portraits Imaginaire. Proofs of the lithographs were submitted to Picasso who corrected them and noted his "bon a tirer" (meaning they were "good to print"). It took a year to create the lithographs. Upon completion, the plates were destroyed. Each print is hand numbered and carries, in the plate, the signature of Picasso as it appears on the orginal gouache. Picasso did not hand sign any of the Portraits Imaginaire lithographs.

Condition: Very good condition. Minor paper peeling from tape verso.