Picasso ballerina drawings
Pablo Picasso Danseuse naine (Dwarf Dancer) from the 'Barcelona' suite , is a painterly work, full of luminous and vivid colors, depicting a dancer in an elegant red dress with a large flower on her head. From his brief Post-Impressionist period, Picasso utilizes the brush in an energetic layering of pure hues to create a vibrant scene full of motion and activity.
This work was produced in conjunction with a special Picasso exhibition at the Barcelona Museum on the occasion of the artist's 85th Birthday. The image is based on a painting in the museum's collection and is from Picasso's brief period of Post-Impressionism.
Brilliantly colored with vibrantly saturated hues, this work captures the essence of the artist's use of divided light and pure color. Depicting a dancer with brightly rouged cheeks who confronts the viewer with an air of disdain, a sense of the decadence of Spanish performance is exhibited in this image through the dress and accouterments of the dancer.
Created in , this color lithograph is printed on Arches wove paper. Signed in the lower right by Picasso in pencil, this work is from the numbered edition of Published by the Museo Picasso, Palacio Aguilar, Barcelona, this work was printed by Foto-Repro S.A., Barcelona.
Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Pablo Picasso Dwarf Dancer (Danseuse Naine) from the Barcelona Suite , is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the final sale of the work):
1) Czwiklitzer, Christopher, Picasso's Posters, , listed as cat no with
details on pg
2) Warncke, Carsten-Peter, Pablo Picasso , Vol I, , original
painting listed on page
3) Daix, Pierre and Georges Boudaille, Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods, A
Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, , , original painting listed
as cat no IV.2 on pg
About the Framing:
Conservation framed with archival materials and museum quality, P The Three Dancers (fig.1) is considered to be one of Picasso’s greatest masterpieces. The moment the artist applied the final touch, the writer André Breton all but begged him to allow him to publish it in his journal La Révolution surréaliste. Picasso was the most celebrated contemporary artist of the time, and this painting became revered immediately. Despite pressure from his dealer and from friends to sell it, Picasso kept it in his possession for forty years, lending it occasionally to exhibitions – notably the Tate Gallery’s major retrospective in – but he guarded it as his own. Tate’s acquisition of this painting in was hard-won by Sir Roland Penrose, a trustee of the gallery and a friend of Picasso’s. The campaign by Penrose to persuade Picasso to sell it to the Tate is well documented in Penrose’s personal notes and later in a publication by Tate curator Ronald Alley detailing what he had to go through to win it.1 This lengthy story will be touched on briefly as some of the discussion between Penrose and Picasso reveals the artist’s thoughts on the painting. Much has been written about this painting and many minds have been applied to examine its style, significance and symbolism. Some insightful technical analysis was carried out when it was acquired, which focused on the original structure of the painting and stretcher. This analysis is invaluable now since the original stretcher was replaced in Pentimenti visible in the surface of the painting, especially when viewed in raking light, suggest that Picasso made changes to the painting over time.2 An incomplete X-radiograph made in revealed for the first time three more conventional dancers beneath the painting’s surface.3 These figures have since been convincingly compared to an earlier tiny painting, now of unknown location, called The Dance painted in The similarities and differences between these two paintings will be explored in depth here, whi Pen and black ink on tan wove paper. 13 7/8 x 9 7/8 inches ( x cm) Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray. Notes: Picasso created this drawing while observing rehearsals of the Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo; dancers were among his favorite subjects. Picasso's association with the itinerant ballet company began in , when he designed sets and costumes for the avant-garde production Parade. Represented in abbreviated yet remarkably descriptive lines, the languorous dark-haired dancer at the barre has been identified as Serge Lifar, while the seated blond man is probably a Ukrainian dancer known as Khoer. Picasso concealed an earlier version of Lifar's right leg with extensive crosshatching between the two figures. Lifar recalled in his memoirs, "In , while spending the Easter holiday in the French Midi, Picasso sketched me in the ballet Zéphire et Flore and offered me some of the twenty-five drawings he made." Zéphire et Flore, with scenery and costumes designed by Georges Braque, premiered on April 28, Inscription: Signed and dated recto, lower right, in black ink: "Picasso / 25" Provenance: Richard Green Gallery, London, [XIX and XX Century European Paintings, cat. no. 29]; sold, Sotheby&#;s, New York, May 17, , lot A; Richard and Mary L. Gray. Artist page: Picasso, Pablo Moving away from the limited colours of many of Picasso’s other line drawings, Dancer owes its energy and vibrancy from the variety of colour, each used to represent different parts of the dancer’s body and physique and including the purple leotard that was typical attire for ballet dancers of that era. The gentle, wavy lines of Dancer and its vivid colours have been likened to Fauvism, which is the style of les Fauves, meaning ‘the wild beasts’ in French, a movement led by André Derain and Henri Matisse at the beginning of the 20th Century. Their work embodied the emblematic themes of Impressionism and, although the movement only lasted a few years and only produced three exhibitions, the work they produced has had a lasting effect upon the art world and significant artists such as Picasso. As a talented draughtsman, Picasso often used sketches as a conduit to discovery and to engage his art with past masters. The result was the development and creation of his inimitable style and the production of powerful and moving pieces such as Dancer Some of Picasso’s other line drawings are far more intricate than Dancer but the simplicity of this piece forces the eye to absorb the grace of the dancer’s movement. She is caught in a typical ballet pose but the inference is that this is simply a moment caught for posterity and that the dance will continue for an audience as absorbed as we are by this work of art. Instead of being captured by an entire ballet, however, those who look upon this work are captivated by the moment, the ballet and the dancer. The Three Dancers by Pablo Picasso
Dancer ()