PICASSO Pablo Lot n° 77

PICASSO Pablo 1881-1973: Kneeling woman putting her hair up, 1906 Bronze sculpture with brown patina. Cast iron by C. Valsuani made in 1968. H: 42.2; W: 31.8; D: 26 cm Certificate of Mr Claude Picasso. Provenance: designed in ceramics in 1906, the sculpture was published in 15 copies + a proof from the foundryman. The latter is perfectly documented. From the ceramic designed by Picasso, the merchant Ambroise Vollard obtained in 1910 from Picasso the authorization to publish bronzes based on this sculpture. Five copies were cast by Claude Valsuani. These five bronzes were signed but not numbered. Picasso kept one copy which was part of the Picasso Estate when he died in 1973. Vollard also kept a copy. The others are kept at the Hirshborn Museum in Washington, the Museum of Baltimore and the Ludwig Museum in Cologne. The ceramics were kept by Picasso, who gave them to Raoul Pellequier, collector and brother of Max Pellequier, the artist's friend and banker. In 1968, Raoul Pellequier, with Picasso's permission, asked the Valsuani Foundry to make ten more prints based on the ceramics, this time unsigned but numbered. Of these ten copies, the 2/10 is kept at the Berggruen Museum in Berlin, the 5/10 at the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, the 6/10 at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, the 9/10 at the Picasso Museum in Paris. In order to pay less for this edition, Raoul Pellequier donated a sculpture from the print to the foundryman as a "Pièce du Fondeur". This piece remained in the collections of the Valsuani Foundry until it was bought by the D...e family in 1973. Acquired from it, our bronze then entered a Parisian collection.