Pablo Picasso
Portrait of Balzac,
INCLUDE ORIGINAL BOOK PLUS EXTRA LITHO)
plate V from Balzacs en Bas de Casse et Picassos sans Majuscule
Original Lithograph number V
1952 (published 1957), pencil numbered 93/100, with full margins,
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, publisher
Sizes: image 22.2 x 16.5cm/ paper 32.4 x 25.1cm
Bibliography: Bloch, 718; Mourlot, 220
PORTRAITS OF BALZAC
Picasso arrived in Paris for a few days. I ask him to do a portrait of Balzac for the publisher Sauret and just by chance bring him something to work with; the next morning phone call, I arrive at rue Gay-Lussac. Picasso gives me 8 litho drawings, in the requested format, executed in pen on transfer paper and marked from I to VIII (numbers 216 to 223) as well as 3 large compositions (numbers 225 to 227).
A few days later, on December 7, 1952, he remade a pencil lithograph (no. 224) and in the meantime an etching of the same subject.
216. FRONTISPIECE FOR “LE PÈRE GORIOT”
November 25, 1952. Book format I6X 22.
Pen drawing on transfer paper traced on stone.
Grand prize for the best novels of the 19th century. André Sauret
publisher 1952.
Edition of 300 copies on Arches laid paper, 300 on chine paper and
3. 100 copies on vellum.
This litho bears number 2 in the series of 8 marked outside the book format.
