- EN
Log in-
- Live Auctions
- Past auctions
- More
- Kornfeld today
- The Story of Kornfeld
- Information
Gósol, summer 1906
Pen drawing in sepia, mounted on support cardboard
Paris, probably late 1905
Drypoint on zinc, on Arches laid paper with watermark
Paris, summer-autumn 1905
Drypoint on copper on Arches laid paper with watermark
1923
Pen and ink drawing on cream-coloured laid paper
Paris, 14 July 1942
Etching, direct etching, scraper and burin on zinc, on heavy wove paper
Paris, 14 July 1942
Etching, direct etching, scraper and burin on zinc, on heavy Arches wove paper with watermark
1948-1954
Bronze
Paris, 3 April 1949
Colour lithograph on Arches wove paper with watermark
22 June 1953
White faience, painting with engobe colour
Mougins, 26 January and 13 March 1962
Colour linocut on Arches wove paper
1924
Pen and Indian ink on strong wove paper
20 May 1936
Pen and ink drawing in black Indian ink, mixed with printer's ink, reworked with brush, on Kodatrace film
4 June 1936
Pen and ink drawing in black Indian ink, mixed with printer's ink, reworked with brush, on Kodatrace film
10 January 1954
Pen and ink on wove paper
1904/1905, published as an edition in 1913
Etchings and drypoints on yellowish Van Gelder Zonen wove paper with watermark
Paris, 3–7 November and 31 December 1934
Aquatint, treated with scraper, drypoint and burin on laid paper with watermark "Vollard"
Paris, 12 June 1936
Aquatint, scraper and burin on Montval laid paper with watermark "Vollard"
Paris, 18 January 1938
4 Etchings, each on laid paper, some with watermark
Paris, January to June 1939
Colour aquatint, scraper and drypoint on laid paper with watermark "Picasso"
Paris, April-March 1939
Colour aquatint, scraper and drypoint on heavy Montval laid paper with watermark
Paris, 25 April 1939
Aquatint, burin, drypoint and charcoal powder on Montval laid paper
Paris, 30 May 1949
Aquatint, burin and drypoint on heavy Rives wove paper
In his extremely extensive graphic oeuvre, the "Linos" created mainly in two phases between 1958 and 1965 actually occupy a small but immensely significant part. Of the linocuts Picasso created, some were produced only as individual trial proofs, but many were eventually published in an edition of 50 copies by Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris. In hardly any other medium did Picasso combine technical innovation, painterly thinking, and creative freedom in a comparable way. What began as an experiment with a previously rather inconspicuous printing process developed into one of the most original contributions to 20th-century printmaking.
Since 1948, Picasso regularly stayed in Vallauris, where he initially worked mainly with ceramics. There he met the printer Hidalgo Arnéra, whose studio printed the posters for the ceramic exhibitions in Vallauris. It was probably these works that drew Picasso's attention to linoleum as a printing technique. The inexpensive, easy-to-work material had long been widespread in poster design, but within fine art it was hardly considered a sophisticated graphic medium.
Picasso quickly recognized its artistic possibilities. The soft, homogeneous linoleum allowed for immediate work and, in contrast to woodcut, offered no limitation by a natural grain. Lines could be drawn with great freedom, but at the same time the finest details could be worked out precisely. Hidalgo Arnéra later recalled that Picasso treated the material "als hätte er sein Leben lang nichts anderes gemacht".
The first linocuts were still made using the traditional method, in which a separate printing plate was required for each color. This method was technically complex and severely restricted the artist's spontaneous working method. The decisive impetus for a new solution came from Hidalgo Arnéra. He suggested to Picasso that all colors be printed successively from a single linoleum plate. Picasso immediately recognized the creative potential of this so-called elimination or reduction process and developed it in a very short time to a previously unknown perfection.
The starting point is a single plate, which is first printed in the lightest color. The artist then cuts out those areas that are to retain this color tone before the next—usually darker—color is printed over it. This process is repeated until the final printing pass, which is often done in black. With each cut, the plate is irrevocably changed; an earlier state can no longer be restored. This finality in particular required an extraordinary power of imagination. As an example, "Femme assise au chignon" (Baer 1298; Bloch 1071) may be cited: First, Picasso prints the entire plate in a light brown, then he cuts the actual head out of the plate and prints it in a darker light brown over the "Tonplatte" (Ier état), then he cuts out further parts of the plate and prints in brown over the two layers (IIe état), cuts away more parts and finally prints in black over the previous states (IIIe état). Arnéra prints the plate four times before the artist finally gives his consent for the edition to be produced. He processed some plates into edition prints in up to three different states (for example Baer 1297, 1304, or 1338), which required significantly more impressions per state during printing. For some, he used, in addition to the plate, a matching frame printed in linocut, which he used for several edition prints (for example Baer 1320, 1323, or 1337).
Picasso therefore had to have the final composition fully in mind from the outset and developed the image, as it were, in reverse. Brigitte Baer meticulously documented this creative process in her seven-volume catalogue raisonné "Picasso. Peintre-Graveur" (1986-1996, Galerie Kornfeld Verlag, Bern). The individual states impressively show how Picasso developed the image layer by layer and made color a constructive element of the composition.
The collaboration with Hidalgo Arnéra was of decisive importance. Each printing pass required the utmost precision, as even the slightest shifts would have impaired the color registration. While Picasso continued to work on the plate after each print, Arnéra had to complete all impressions of a state. For an edition of fifty copies, numerous additional prints were therefore necessary—including trial proofs, color variants, and state proofs. Only when artist and printer were satisfied with the result did the actual edition printing begin.
It is precisely in this combination of precise planning and creative freedom that the special significance of Picasso's linocuts lies. Behind their apparent lightness is an extraordinarily complex working process. From a material that had long been associated mainly with poster and commercial graphics, Picasso created works of exceptional painterly power and technical sophistication, and finally elevated the linocut to the status of an autonomous artistic medium.
Of the total of about 170 linocuts, 25 were conceived as posters. Of about 35 linocuts, only trial proofs or individual impressions were made. About 110 of the sheets, however, were published as editions in varying numbers of copies, several times by Édition Galerie Madoura, Cannes, once by Berggruen, Paris, or others. The most important 104 linocuts were published by the artist's main gallery, Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris, in the usual Picasso edition of 50 copies.
A French private collector was able to acquire 103 sheets with the uniform numbering "45/50" from the holdings of Galerie Leiris. Up to the sheet "Visage" (Baer 1339), the sheets correspond to the normal edition. The last two existing sheets, "Étreinte I und II", do bear the numbering "45/50", but are not pure linocuts; rather, Picasso additionally reworked them in his specially developed rinsing technique (Rinçage) with Indian ink. The last linocut sheet published by Leiris in 1965, "Peintre et modèle au fauteuil à bascule" (Baer 1359), is missing from the collection. It is possible that, due to the reduction technique used, not enough sheets were available for the edition number. Unfortunately, we were unable to find this out. In the present form, with 103 of the total 104 uniformly numbered sheets, the series exists to our knowledge only in the group offered here. All the main sheets are included, only the last linocut is missing. The practically complete series of edition prints from Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, is an impressive testament to Picasso's magnificent compositions and to printmaking in general.
Paris, probably March 1905
Drypoint on Japan paper
Paris, 1905
Etching and scraper on Arches laid paper
1909
Drypoint and scraper on Arches laid paper with watermark
Paris, autumn/winter 1913
Drypoint on Van Gelder laid paper
Paris, August 1911
Drypoint on Arches laid paper with watermark
Paris, second half of 1915
Engraving and scraper on old, strong Japan paper
Boisgeloup, 18 June 1933
Drypoint, etching, scraper and burin on Arches wove paper with watermark
Paris, 20 June 1934
Etching on laid paper with watermark "Vollard"
Paris, 30 January 1934
Etching on Arches laid paper with watermark
Paris, 18 October 1938
Etching, aquatint, scraper and burin on laid paper with watermark "Picasso"
1939
Aquatint on copper on laid paper with watermark "Picasso"
Cannes, 31 March 1960
Burin on celluloid, on folded Arches wove paper
Mougins, 23 October 1963
Drypoint and scraper over aquatint on wove paper
Mougins, 23 October 1963
Aquatint, scraper and drypoint on wove paper
Mougins, 7 December 1963
Aquatint, etching and drypoint on Richard de Bas wove paper with watermark
Mougins, 3 January 1964
Etching and aquatint on Richard de Bas wove paper with watermark
Mougins, 27 August 1964
Colour aquatint on strong Richard de Bas wove paper with watermark
Mougins, 1 March 1965
Aquatint on Richard de Bas wove paper with watermark
Mougins, 2 March 1965
Aquatint and drypoint on Richard de Bas wove paper with watermark
Mougins, 26/27 October 1966
Aquatint and etching, reworked with scraper and drypoint, on wove paper
Mougins, 16–22 March 1968
Etching on strong wove paper
Mougins, 13 April 1968
Aquatint on BFK Rives wove paper with watermark
Paris, circa 23 May 1929
Lithograph on Lafuma wove paper with watermark
Paris, 17 December 1945
Lithograph on Arches wove paper with watermark
16 November 1945
Lithograph on wove paper
Paris, 4 December 1945
Lithograph on Arches wove paper with watermark
20 January 1947
Lithograph on Arches wove paper with watermark
