Lot 68

Spots of discoloration to margins, three on face of right hand figure and three in lower right hand quadrant within plate margin, light buckling to paper. 56 x 61cm framed.


The opinions expressed in the condition reports are a guide only and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Prospective buyers are encouraged to seek further information or request additional images during our pre-sale period where Leonard Joel staff are available for advice. Please note condition reports can be amended during the pre-sale period, so we strongly suggest any interested bidders check the published condition report available on the website before the auction commences. Leonard Joel makes no guarantee of the originality of mechanical or applied components. Absence of reference to such modifications does not imply that a lot is free from modifications.

Arend Ter Horst, Amsterdam
Craig Russell, NSW, gift from the above 1997

Bloch, G., Pablo Picasso, catalogue de l'oeuvre grave et lithographié, Kornfeld and Klipstein, Berne, 1968, no. 228.
Baer, B. & Geiser, B., Picasso: Peintre-Graveur, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre grave et des monotypes, Kornfeld, Berne, 1990-92, no. 442.
Paulau i Fabre, J., Del Minotaur al Guernika (1927-1939), Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona, 2011, vol. IV, no. 671.

The Vollard Suite is a set of 100 etchings considered by many to be the most significant cycle of prints made by Pablo Picasso. Named after and commissioned by influential art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard in 1933, the suite forms one of the most important graphic works of the 20th century.

The series was created over a six-year period and paid for with original paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne from Vollard's personal collection. The neoclassical works explore some of Picasso's favoured themes and most obsessive thoughts during the 1930s including the artist and model, the artist's desire for his young mistress and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, his meditations on Rembrandt, and his mythical Minotaur alter-ego.

In the present work, made on 29 November 1934 in Paris, a youthful sailor converses with his older, weathered counterpart (whose gnarled face is strikingly similar to that of an aged Rembrandt) over a drink. The heavy, almost feverishly-worked figure of the older man in contrast to the youth's simple outline acts as a symbol of his life experience and demonstrates Picasso's preoccupation with youthfulness and the lessons that the old masters and classical sculptors have to offer.

Vollard tragically died in a car accident before the plates could be printed, and due to the escalation of WWII, the first series of the Suite Vollard was not offered for sale until the 1950s. Complete sets are found in numerous institutions globally, including at the National Gallery of Australia, the British Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

© Succession Picasso/Copyright Agency, 2022