Les Trois Graces II

 

Pablo Picasso

  1881 - 1973 (biography)

1922 -23 

etching 

12 7/8 x 7 3/4" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

"epreuve d'artiste", (artist's proof) outside edtion of 110. 

pencil editioned "epreuve l'artiste"; inscribed "LX" in lower margin in unknown hand. 

Bloch 59 (full page illustration, page 59); Geiser/Baer 105b 

antique-white wove BFK with partial watermark at upper sheet edge 

i/i proof 

Marcel Guoit, Paris 

ANFO110 

$25,000.00 

An exceptional proof impression of this early Picasso etching. This is an artist's proof, outside the published edition of 110. This proof is inscribed in pencil "epreuve l'artiste" above the pencil signature. Picasso did a series of paintings and six etchings using the 'Three Graces' ("Charities" in Greek and the "Gratiae" in Roman mythologies) as a subject. The 'Three Graces' have been the muse for artists through the centures: Botticelli in the 15th, Raphael in the 16th, Rubens in the 17th, d'Antoine in the 18th, Canova in the 19th and Picasso in the 20th. The 'Three Graces' were sisters, daughters of Zeus and his third wife Eurynome. They were (left to right): Euphrosyne, goddess of mirth; Aglaea, goddess of elegance and Thalia, goddess of youth and beauty. The Graces presided over banquets and gatherings, to delight the guests of the gods.