PICASSO.- JACOB (Max). The Siege of Jerusalem.... Lot 864

PICASSO.- JACOB (Max). The Siege of Jerusalem. Great celestial temptation of Saint Matorel. Illustrated with etchings by Pablo Picasso. P., Henry Kahnweiler, (1914), 8°, unpaginated, br. (cover leg. soiled, leg. discharge of the cover and snakes protecting the engravings, interior very fresh). Original edition of 106 copies, signed by the author and the artist, among them one of the 85 Hollande van Gelder (ex. no. 52). Written in Quimper, and completed in 1911, this play in three acts is the third part of the Matorel trilogy. It reflects Jacob's mystical quest, and traces his research on the Kabbalah and astrology. Derain having refused to illustrate this text, Picasso was asked to do so and, during the winter of 1913-1914, produced three superb cubist engravings: an etching "Femme nue", a drypoint "Nature morte au crâne" and a drypoint and etching "Femme". This is the third book illustrated by Pablo Picasso after Poems by André Salmon in 1905 and Saint Matorel by Max Jacob in 1911 (Cramer, Pablo Picasso, Les Livres illustrés, 3). Extremely rare.