Pablo PICASSO (1881 - 1973) (after)
Pablo PICASSO (1881 - 1973) (after)
Combat pour Andromède entre Persée et Phinée (The Combat of Perseus and Phineus for Andromeda) Plate from Les Métamorphoses
Printed on laid paper. Full margins.
Size: 28 x 22 cm (11 x 8.7 in)
Photogravure after an etching by the artist, from a luxury portfolio by the artist (1931 edition).
The publication marks the first book produced by the young bibliophile Albert Skira, who founded his publishing house in Lausanne in 1928 at the age of 25. Skira was determined to have his first project illustrated by Picasso.
The collaboration followed an initial meeting where a 20-year-old Skira had unsuccessfully proposed a book about Napoleon to Picasso. Years later, after Skira’s mother intervened at Picasso’s house in Juan-les-Pins, the painter agreed to work with him on the condition that Napoleon was not mentioned, suggesting a mythological theme instead. Skira subsequently proposed Ovid's Metamorphoses, which Picasso accepted.
While some accounts credit Pierre Matisse with suggesting the text, others state that Picasso recounted a dream to Skira in 1928 about a woman transforming into a fish, prompting Skira to suggest the Metamorphoses. Picasso originally promised 15 illustrations to match the 15 books of the work, but Skira requested 15 additional half-page etchings to serve as chapter headings. Following a long period of perseverance by the publisher, Picasso began working in September 1930, completing all thirty etchings by the end of October.
The project represents a rare instance where Picasso illustrated a text with close attention to the narrative, creating up to six different versions of the same subject to find the ideal representation (S. Goeppert).
The resulting etchings possess a distinct homogeneity, characterized by pure contours and a discreet eroticism. The full-page plates illustrate Ovid's text with a fidelity that is rare for Picasso, while the chapter headings- free from textual constraints- these plates consist of independent nude studies and faces.
The book was printed on Picasso's 50th birthday, two weeks before Ambroise Vollard published Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu. At the end of the volume, Christian Zervos described the work as having an "almost Doric beauty."
Initial reception among bibliophiles was mixed. The commercial success of the edition was secured when New York gallery owner Marie Harriman purchased half of the entire edition.
This initial collaboration between Skira and Picasso led directly to their partnership on the Surrealist magazine Minotaure, launched in 1933 alongside publisher Tériade. In 1937, Tériade sold his shares in Albert Skira Editeur to establish the publishing house and arts magazine Verve.
Miguel Orozco The etchings of Pablo Picasso. Volume 1, Nos. 345-346, pp. 257-258, 290-293