picasso - Auckland Art Gallery

194710 LA CENTAURESSE(The Centauress)Lithograph 26th January50x65 18/50During the battle of Paris, 1944, Picassomade a version of Poussin's Bacchanal in theLouvre. This was followed later by a painting,La joie de vivre. Picasso uses mythologicalpaganism as a symbol for the Mediterraneanand provides for our own age acontinuance of that rich, sensual traditionwhich the Mediterranean has maintainedalmost since the beginning of time.11 LE HIBOU SLIR LA CHAISE(Owl on a chair)Lithograph 20th January65x50 39/50Michel Sima gave Picasso a small owl atAntibes in 1946. Picasso made a first drawingof it in November, 1946, and followedthis up with more drawings in 1947, arrivingat the point of this lithograph. However, hewent on by drawings and paintings to finallyceramics, in 1950. Thus the artist finds inthe owl significant linear, formal and symbolicalqualities.B pi. 130. B/S cat. 202.12 DAVID ET BATHSABEE(David and Bathsheba)Lithograph 30th March65 x 50 5/50(various states) AC pl.42. B pis. 146, 147.Like the Poussin Bacchanal mentioned inNo. 10, this is another of Picasso's borrowings.It is his version of Lucas Cranach's(1472-1533) painting of the same title. Thistheme went through seven states in all, eachone being a distinct variation both in termsof alterations and complete changes in technique.Here again one recognises Picasso'sability to transform the images of anothercentury so that they become wholly meaningfulfor our own.13 DAVID ET BATHSABEELithograph65x50 8/50\14 DAVID ET BATHSABEELithograph65x50 11/5015 LE PIGEON ET SES PETITS(The Pigeon and her Young)Lithograph 19th March50x65 17/50The pigeon with the olive branch and wearinga tricolor hat is a forerunner of the LaColombe, No. 32.16 CENTAURE, FAUNE ETNYMPHE(Centaur, faun and nymph)Lithograph 2nd FebruaryB pi. 12617 DORMEUR ET FEMMEASSISE(Sleeper and seated woman)Lithograph 11th MayThis is a familiar subject and is treated mostfully in the Vollard Suite dating from 1933.AC pl.3618 FLEURS ET FRUITS(Flowers and fruit)Lithograph50x65 15/5019 LE TALIREAU NOIR(The Black Bull)Lithograph 20th April50x65 6/50In this work Picasso produces an amalgamof the earlier series (see No. 5). Here onesees the colossal whole of the parts in thevariations. A symbol both for the sympatheticmagic of early man and the brute power ofthe twentieth century.B/S p.106-[10]-