Picasso at Madoura: A Ceramic Bird Captured in Mid-Flight

Published on 24 March 2023, by Vanessa Schmitz-Grucker

Auction on 05 April 2023 - 14:15 (CEST) - Salle 10 - Hôtel Drouot - 75009

At the Madoura Studio in Vallauris, Provence, Picasso created an iconographic repertoire steeped in antiquity, including the Gros oiseau vert (Large Green Bird) vase specially designed for Georges and Suzanne Ramié.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Gros oiseau vert (Large Green Bird) vase, white earthenware,... Picasso at Madoura: A Ceramic Bird Captured in Mid-Flight

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Gros oiseau vert (Large Green Bird) vase, white earthenware, engobe decoration, engraved with a knife, hand painted, 25 copies, Madoura and Édition Picasso stamps, “exemplaire éditeur” hand inscribed inside the neck, h. 57 cm/22.44 in, w. 44 cm/17.32 in.

Estimate: €130,000/160,000

Birds— owls , eagle-owls, doves of peace and golden eagles—are the zoomorphic hybrid creations that show up most often in Pablo Picasso’s paintings and sculptures. In the late 1940s, under the kind eye of his owl Ubul, the artist modeled simplified forms for utilitarian ceramics at the Madoura Studio in Vallauris; It was in this small village in the commune of Golfe-Juan where he met the owners, Georges and Suzanne Ramié, in the summer of 1946.…

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