Description
Edition: 17/50 – There were also 17 artists proofs
References
Bloch, Georges. 1968-1979. Pablo Picasso, catalogue de l’oeuvre gravé et lithographié, 4 vol. Berne: Kornfeld and Klipstein. (Bloch 1617)
Geiser, Bernhard and Brigitte Baer. 1986-1996. Picasso: Peintre-Graveur, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre gravé et des monotypes, 7 vols. Berne: Kornfeld. (Baer 1633.Bb1)
Printed by: Atelier Crommelynck
Published by: Galerie Louise Leiris in 1969.
Provenance: Private Collection Stockholm, Sweden
Note: The 66 original etchings done for La Célestine are part of Picasso’s 347 Suite (ours is plate number 274) , a collection of 347 etchings and aquatints generated in a furious creative frenzy; the 87-year-old artist turned out etchings at the rate of virtually two a day between March 16th and October 5th 1968, a mere seven months.
The La Célestine suite are illustrations, or more accurately a response, to one of the most significant works in Spanish literature, properly known as La Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, a dramatized novel written by Fernando de Rojas and published in Burgos in 1499. Picasso had been familiar with the work since adolescence and in later life he collected various rare editions. The tale revolves around Celestina, an aged matchmaker whose corruption knows no bounds as she resorts to pulling one ruse after another in order to further her position.The old procuress and her hedonistic band of prostitutes, corrupt servants, clerics, officials, swaggering pimps and courtiers inhabit scene after scene driven by gross self-interest. The bawdy lewdness of the La Célestine plot is evident from its beginning, as is its account of selfish human indulgence, and the reader is the voyeur of all their sordid dealings. The story tells of a bachelor, Calisto, who uses the old procuress and bawd Celestina to start an affair with Melibea, an unmarried girl kept in seclusion by her parents. Though the two use the rhetoric of costly love , sex — not marriage — is their aim. When he dies in an accident, she commits suicide. The two lovers can be seen together in our etching.
This is number 137 from the 347 series and is Illustration IX for La Celestine de Fernando de Rojas, Paris, 1971, Edition Crommelynck (Page 37).
The copper plate was cancelled in 1979 and is held by the Musee Picasso, Paris, presented by Crommelynck.
Size: Paper size: 250 x 325 mms; Plate size: 84 x 60 mms ; Frame size 42 x 51 cms
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