Signed French-language book: The Man with the Sheep by Pablo Picasso (by Andre Verdet). First edition. Paris: Editions Falaize, 1950. Softcover, 4.75 x 6.25, 46 pages. Signed opposite the half-title page in pencil, "Picasso." The half-title page is signed and inscribed in ink by the book's author, Andre Verdet, who adds a sketch of a sailboat. In very good to fine condition, with both covers detached, but present.
Picasso created the sculpture Man with a Lamb [Sheep] between 1943 and 1944 while living in Nazi-occupied Paris and it stood in the forefront of his sculpture studio at the Rue des Grands-Augustins throughout the war. Although critical discussion of Man with a Sheep has revolved around its specific Biblical and art-historical roots, Picasso insisted that he intended no symbolism or message. But in 1950 he presented a version of the statue to the southern French city of Vallauris, which this signed book documents. There in the center square, the austere man gripping the flailing lamb became a somber memorial to wartime sacrifices in the fight against fascism. Picasso later considered the sculpture to be one of his most important works.
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