The 30 Minute Rule begins January 8 at 7:00 PM EST. An Initial Bid Must Be Placed By January 8 at 6:00 PM EST To Participate After 6:00 PM EST
Front cover of the Bastei Galerie's Der Grossen Maler [The Great Painters] booklet from 1967, No. 19, featuring a color image of Pablo Picasso’s masterful 1905 oil painting ‘Family of Saltimbanques,’ with the upper right identifying the issue as “Picasso, I. Teil [Part],” 10 x 13.75, signed in the lower border in black felt tip, “Picasso.” Impressively double-matted and gilt-framed to an overall size of 18.5 x 22. In fine condition, with a few small stains in the area of the signature, which itself is faded but remains legible.
One of Picasso’s most important paintings from his early career is ‘Les Saltimbanques,’ the culmination of his Saltimbanque cycle, a series of drawings, paintings, engravings, and sculptures that Picasso focused on from late 1904 to the end of 1905. Their focus was on circus performers, such as acrobats, clowns, and harlequins, subjects typically portrayed in a certain jovial or playful manner. Picasso’s works, however, were quite the opposite.
To Picasso, these wandering saltimbanques represented the neglected underclass of artistes, a kind of extended family with whom he identified. Like them, the Spanish-born Picasso was transient during his first years in Paris while striving for recognition. Eventually, he found a dilapidated apartment in Montmartre, where he and his friends regularly attended the local Cirque Medrano’s performances. Picasso made many images of circus performers in 1904–1905, most of them representing couples with their babies and troupe animals, posed ‘portrait’ images, and figures at practice.’ Family of Saltimbanques is considered the masterpiece of Picasso's Rose Period, sometimes called his ‘circus period.’
This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
Buy a third-party letter of authenticity for
$250.00
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
