Description
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Petite Chouette, A.R. 82
Medium: Ceramic, white earthenware with engobe decoration, glazed interior
Size: 5 1/4" x 6" x 4 1/2"
Condition: Very good condition overall
Year: 1949
Edition: Edition of 200
Inscription: Signed on underside "Edition Picasso Madoura" with manufacturer's mark "Madoura Plein Feu D'Apres Picasso'"
Documentation: Comes with a gallery certificate of authenticity, complete record of provenance available on request
Spanish artist Pablo Picasso is considered one of the most influential and significant artists of the 20th century. Today he is renowned for his role in co-founding Cubism and shaping the direction of modern and contemporary art. His unique and distinct approach to art combined several styles, some of which he helped develop. His body of work encompassed painting, drawing, prints, sculpture, and ceramics.
Though known primarily for his larger-than-life paintings, Picasso discovered a passion for pottery while in the South of France in 1946. While at a pottery exhibition in Vallauris, he met the owners of Madoura Pottery, Suzanne and Georges Ramié. The three of them eventually established a creative partnership. With the help of the Madoura studio, Picasso created ceramics inspired by his sketches. He created vases, sculptural work, and functional objects such as bowls, plates, and pitchers. The vessels often depicted bullfighting scenes, portraits, more specifically faces, and animals such as birds, fish, and goats. His pieces incorporated various ceramic techniques such as carving, etching, painting, and glazing. Picasso and Madoura Pottery collaborated for decades to create over 633 limited edition pieces.
Petite Chouette is a pitcher in the shape of an owl with a spherical body. Picasso used the spout, handle, base, and body of a pitcher to fully animate the bird. The graceful linework enhances the elegance of the piece. Inspired by the pet owl that often accompanied Picasso in his studio, he created a life-sized pitcher of the bird.
Petite Chouette includes a gallery certificate of authenticity and a complete record of provenance available on request. The work is signed on the underside with “Edition Picasso Madoura” and includes the manufacturer's mark “Madoura Plein Feu D'Apres Picasso.” Furthermore, the artwork is in very good condition overall.
About Pablo Picasso
A man of unparalleled talent, Pablo Picasso was the most influential figure in the 20th-century art. With an unequivocal sense of invention, he was devoted to creating art throughout his life, crossing media with utter ease and elegance, always following his limitless imagination as the ultimate indicator of truth. Together with Georges Braque, Picasso fathered one of the most progressive art movements - Cubism, rethinking the representation of the three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface in a radical way. Inspired by the art of Africa and the Iberian peninsula, his ideas and works left a deep mark on other modernist movements, including Expressionism and Surrealism. His most famous work, the powerful “Guernica” (1937), was created in reaction to the Spanish Civil War, today celebrated as the supreme example of anti-war art. Resolute and vital throughout his life, Picasso left behind a colossal body of work of paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, ceramics, costumes and stage set designs.
With a name synonymous with greatness, Picasso is considered a legend. He was infamous for his many passionate relationships with women, as well as for his charisma. With an ego to match his gift, the great artist once said about himself: “My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain, in 1881. He lived in Paris and Mougins, France, where he died in 1973.