Pablo Picasso

Jeune Fille Mourlot 153; cf. Bloch 1836 zincograph, 1949, on fine wove appliqué over heavy Arches wove paper (with the Arches watermark), a fine impression with wide margins*, the only known state, one of only five trial proofs, before the addition of the text Pour le Centenaire de Mourlot-Picasso for the album edition of 100 celebrating the centennial of the Atelier Mourlot**, deckle edges above and below, slight and uniform time-staining overall, light-staining along the extreme upper and lower edges, two faint traces of old tape and overall discolouring on the reverse, otherwise in very good condition P. 397x299mm., S. 655x500mm.

In the late 1940s, following his elaborate trials for the well-known Armchair Woman, Picasso executed an important series of rather large-format bust portraits of young women, masterfully exploring the graphic potential of wash drawing on zinc, with the resultant richness of half-tone texture. It should further be noted that Picasso so liked this particular zincographic print that he went on to experiment with its inclusion in a variant of the former (cf. Mourlot 154), and later made two paintings after this motif.

* The only other trial proofs of this print that we have seen were from the Mourlot Collection (Sotheby's, 14 November 1994, n° 106 and 107), one of which was on a smaller sheet of Arches (measuring 408x330mm); the second, as here on wove appliqué, has no measurements given. They were also both unsigned.

** Fernand Mourlot was Picasso's lithographic printer from 1945 on, and the author of the catalogue raisonné of his lithographs.