European Art

Claude Picasso and Maya Widmaier-Picasso have confirmed the authenticity of this drawing and two certificates of authenticity accompany the artwork.

Provenance:

Chiu Gallery, London

Robin Roberts, Bedford, New York, acquired from the above, possibly in the late 1980s

Acquired by private sale through Christie's, New York, by the present owner, 2007

Literature:

Enrique Mallen (ed.), Online Picasso Project, Sam Houston State University, 1997-2023, no. OPP.50:097

Related Literature:

Alain Ramie, Picasso: Catalogue de l’Oeuvre Ceramique Edite, 1947-1971, Madoura, 1988, nos. 129-132 (for plates with a similar image of the fish)

Lot note:

In 1946, after the French Liberation, Picasso gradually spent more and more time in the south of France. It was here that he saw a pottery exhibition in Vallauris, near Cannes, and discovered the work of Georges and Suzanne Ramié, owners of the Madoura pottery workshop. After meeting the artist, the Ramiés proposed that Picasso make ceramics in their workshop. The artist accepted the invitation and revived a previous practice of working with clay, creating three terracotta pieces. In 1947, he settled in the south of France and reconnected with the Madoura workshop, where he rediscovered these artworks. As a result of his joy from this project, Picasso over the next two decades explored ceramics, drawing inspiration from the light and from Mediterranean nature.

It was at Valluris that Etude pour Compotier avec Poisson (Study for Fruit Dish with Fish) was executed. While Picasso ceramics have soared in popularity more recently and have become highly desirable, preparatory drawings for his ceramics are lesser known and rare. The present drawing is such a study, and depicts three compotiers, or fruit dishes. The work reveals Picasso’s active mind as it explored solutions to the plastic challenges of the creation of ceramics. Two of the fruit dishes are heavily drawn side views, and the largest center image is an oval plate rotated upward atop a fruit dish base. This view, with the central image that incorporates two views simultaneously, is indicative of Picasso’s Cubist art. The main drawing of the fish shows it slightly smiling as it chases a curved worm to its left. The subject of the fish chasing a worm was utilized in a painted and glazed white earthenware oval plate titled Poisson de profil, which was produced in several editions, including an edition of 25 produced in 1951 (one of which sold at Christie’s, New York, on February 7, 2020), with some unique hand-painted variants. In the original ceramic mold, the fish image faced left, just as it is in the drawing. The image became reversed when clay was taken from the mold, causing the fish to face the opposite direction as in the drawing.