Pablo Picasso Lot n° 30

Pablo Picasso Char et personnages 1967 Ink brush and pen drawing on wove paper with watermark "GUARRO". 49.5 x 65 cm. Framed under glass. Signed and dated upper left '8.3.67. II Picasso'. The Picasso Project 67-103; Zervos Vol. 27, 479 with ill. p. 183. Provenance Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (with frame label), acquired by the previous owner from Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler; since then in family possession Northern Germany (ca. 1968). Pablo Picasso always devoted himself to love - in his life as well as in his work, and also frequently takes up the theme of the unequal couple. The antithesis of old-young, ugly-beautiful is often thematized, especially in his later years. At the time our masterful, large-format ink brush drawing was created, Picasso was 86 years old and married to his seventh partner, Jacqueline Roque. He had met the young woman - not half his age - in 1952 in Vallauris at the Ramiés, where she was working in sales in the ceramics workshop. "Omnia vincit Amor" - with enigmatic humor Picasso may also allude to his own situation and the great age difference in the present drawing. The all-conquering love is still looking for its way here, however. For Cupid, armed with two arrows, has already overshot his target, or rather flown over the unequal pair of the seated old man and the young lady standing behind him, while he is held back by his mother Venus, standing in the chariot. The scene does not lack a subtle situational comedy. At the same time, it shows Picasso's interest in classical pictorial themes of well-known fellow painters, such as Diego Velázquez. Referring to his iconic work "Las Meninas" from 1656 (see comparative illustration), the little Infanta is no longer the center of attention, but as an adult young woman behind the now somewhat frail seated painter - both in the clothing typical of the Spanish court of the time. Technically brilliant, unerringly drawn and vividly modeled with brush, the viewer is given enough freedom with the present market-fresh paper work - his imagination is not clipped the wings.