Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)
Title:La Colombe Volant (a l’arc-en-ciel)
The Flying Dove with a rainbow
Medium: Original chalk drawn Lithograph in 8 colours, black, yellow, green, rose, ochre, light brown, grey & blue, 10th October 1952 , on Arches watermarked paper, signed and dated by the artist in the stone and also signed by the artist in pencil, lower right.
Reference: Mourlot 214 ; Bloch 712; Rau 548, Hatje 598; Picasso & La Press (By Gerard Gosselin) - Page 180, illustration 276 (The poster illustrated - not the lithograph)
Edition: 200 There were 38 Trial proofs and some artists proofs.
Size: Image size: 500 x 645 cms ; Paper size 550 x 762 cms
Note: In the aftermath of the Second World War Picasso joined the communist party and was active in promoting its activities through his art. The Newspaper “Le Patriot” was a supporter of this ideology and Picasso made a number of lithographs and Linocuts which were published by this organisation amongst which was our work. This was sold to raise finds for the communist party. The poster was made , using the earlier lithograph, to raise funds and awareness for the Disarmament summit conference to be held in Paris in May 1960 - the conference in fact never took place.
La Colombe - The Dove is one of the most famous themes in Picasso's art of the 1950's. He was asked to make an image to express the ideals and aims of the new ' Peace Conference' which would bring together all the European nations in the aftermath of the war - the forerunner of the United Nations. His image of the 'Dove of Peace' was to become one of the most famous symbols of the era. Picasso made a number of versions of the Dove composition in connection with this project, amongst them the versions of the 'Dove surrounded by Linked Hands', and of the 'Dove with the Ear of Corn' (picking up from the Bible story of Noah's Ark), and then a group of compositions with the Dove against a rainbow of colours. The version above belongs to this group. The lithograph was originally drawn on the stone in October 1952 but apart from c.5 proofs no edition was printed at that date; in May 1960 Picasso returned to the image and, using transfer paper, added colours for the background. The edition of 200 signed impressions was then printed
Subsequently the image was used again to embellish a poster for the 1960 Peace Conference.
Published by: The later poster was published by Le movement de la paix, Paris, France. We are not sure who the publisher was for our lithograph.
Printed by: Mourlot Freres, Paris, France
Condition: Very small paper loss on bottom margin far from the image. Apart from that in good condition with fresh bright colours.
