Pablo Picasso Lot n° 29

Pablo Picasso Tarasque 1954 Ceramic jug. White body with red-brown, black and gray engobe, partially glazed in white. Marked with black brush under the belly with the copy number and edition note. Copy 50/50 of the Picasso edition. - Perfect condition. Ramié 247 Provenance Since the end of the 1960s in northern German private ownership. Ceramics - a material Picasso came into contact with by chance in 1946 during a stay in Vallauris on the Côte d'Azur. This material opened up new possibilities for the artist in combining sculptural and pictorial design. Suzanne and Georges Ramié, in whose pottery Madoura Picasso was to create an extensive ceramic oeuvre from then on, first provided the artist with traditional pottery, which was soon followed by his own and idiosyncratic creations. In 1954, our ceramic jug "Tarasque" is created in a small edition of only 50 copies - today hardly on the market. While the painterly design is reminiscent of Moorish architectural details, the sculptural elaboration is unusual and suggests pre-Columbian zoomorphic vessel forms. On the one hand bird body, the form on the four short feet on the other hand makes sense of the painterly design of the back. Thus, a face with a wide row of teeth and bat ears is shown here. "Tarasque" is, according to the legend from the 13th century, a dragon, which drives his mischief in a village located above Arles - later Tarascon - until he is calmed by the song of St. Martha and tamed by her.