La Colombe Volant (a l’arc-en-ciel)

Pablo Picasso

500 x 645cms

Original Chalk Drawn Lithograpgh

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, also known as Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973), was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by the German and Italian airforces at the behest of the Spanish nationalist government during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marcel Duchamp are regarded as the three artists who most defined the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics.Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. His work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period(1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period.

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: 48/200 There were 38 Trial proofs and some artist’s proofs.

Size: Image size: 500 x 645 cms ; Paper size 560 x 765 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

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