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拍品专文
One of Picasso’s earliest prints, Les Pauvres was created in 1905, shortly after the artist had settled in Paris, living in rather precarious conditions at the Bateau Lavoir. Picasso produced a number of etchings during this period, the most famous being Les repas frugal of the same year, which reflect the lives he witnessed around his studio. Depicting scenes of poverty, emaciated figures, alcoholics and itinerant circus or street performers known as ‘saltimbanques’, they capture social conditions as well as Picasso’s personal experiences of financial and emotional difficulty.
Les Pauvres depicts a destitute family: a looming male figure stands behind a seated woman while two children play at her feet. The horizon line and barely visible horse in the distance locates the scene outdoors, but Picasso's heavily etched landscape presents an indeterminate, stark and desolate space. The sombre mood is heightened by the rich plate tone, suggestive of a grey, stormy sky above the family. To provide contrasts, Picasso selectively wiped the excess ink from the mother and children. The children’s youthful innocence as they entertain themselves with nothing but each other is highlighted against the dark background, and the mother’s downcast gaze and huddled posture with folded arms are gently illuminated, revealing her tender sorrow.
The present sheet is among the very few early impressions before the plate was steel-faced in 1913 by the publisher Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), who had acquired the plates of Picasso's earliest etchings from the artist. In electro-plating the copper plates with a thin layer of steel, they could withstand the large print-run envisaged by Vollard for his publication of the prints, which became known as the Suite des Saltimbanques. In doing so, the depth and clarity of the etched lines were reduced, and those later impressions lack the intense contrasts as well as the rich plate tone and selective wiping of Picasso's own first proofs, printed around 1905 by Eugène Delâtre. It is therefore only in the few early impressions, such as the present sheet, that the sombre mood and stark beauty Picasso sought to achieve is fully realised.
Les Pauvres depicts a destitute family: a looming male figure stands behind a seated woman while two children play at her feet. The horizon line and barely visible horse in the distance locates the scene outdoors, but Picasso's heavily etched landscape presents an indeterminate, stark and desolate space. The sombre mood is heightened by the rich plate tone, suggestive of a grey, stormy sky above the family. To provide contrasts, Picasso selectively wiped the excess ink from the mother and children. The children’s youthful innocence as they entertain themselves with nothing but each other is highlighted against the dark background, and the mother’s downcast gaze and huddled posture with folded arms are gently illuminated, revealing her tender sorrow.
The present sheet is among the very few early impressions before the plate was steel-faced in 1913 by the publisher Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), who had acquired the plates of Picasso's earliest etchings from the artist. In electro-plating the copper plates with a thin layer of steel, they could withstand the large print-run envisaged by Vollard for his publication of the prints, which became known as the Suite des Saltimbanques. In doing so, the depth and clarity of the etched lines were reduced, and those later impressions lack the intense contrasts as well as the rich plate tone and selective wiping of Picasso's own first proofs, printed around 1905 by Eugène Delâtre. It is therefore only in the few early impressions, such as the present sheet, that the sombre mood and stark beauty Picasso sought to achieve is fully realised.