¤ PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) TÊTE DE JEUNE HOMME BARBU, 1967 Ink and white wax crayon on colored paper Signed, dedicated 'Pour Jean Ramié' and dated '18.9.67' lower right Ink and white wax crayon on colored paper; signed, dedicated 'Pour Jean Ramié' and dated '18.9.67' lower right 54,2 X 37 CM - 21 3/8 X 14 5/8 IN. A certificate from Monsieur Claude Picasso, dated 10 November 2020, will be given to the buyer. Throughout his life, Pablo Picasso never stopped drawing and, in his graphic work, the description of the human figure, alone or accompanied, occupies a place of the highest importance. This large sheet, dated 18 September 1967 and numbered "II", represents a young bearded man seen in very close-up, the frame stopping just above his shoulders. Slightly turned to the right, his background is a black ink wash that blends with the left part of his face, which is left in shadow. It is with a white grease pencil, applied with great spontaneity, that Picasso details, without the distortions that he was so fond of, the physical characteristics of his model: a slightly rounded forehead, two large expressive eyes, a straight nose, a lippish mouth and a full beard. The slight three-quarter pose and the dark background both echo Flemish and Dutch painting, as well as the painting of the Spanish Golden Age, which Picasso studied extensively in his artistic maturity. But the great gentleness and psychological truth that emerge from this man's head, which has the plastic strength of a painting, perhaps more than anything else evokes the Baldassare Castiglione in the Louvre Museum, in which Raphael portrayed, around 1514-1515, the most perfect incarnation of the Italian Renaissance gentiluòmo: the courtly man from the Book of the Courtesan, with rich but discreetly manifested feelings. An ideal to which Picasso certainly aspired. Pablo Picasso practiced drawing throughout his entire life, and the human figure, alone or with others, plays a central role in his graphic work. This large sheet dated September 18, 1967, and numbered "II," depicts a young, bearded man from an extremely close angle; the frame stops just above his shoulders. Facing slightly to the right, he is set against a background of black ink wash that blends with the left side of his face, in shadow. Using a white, soft-lead pencil applied spontaneously and with none of the deformations he was so fond of, Picasso adds physical characteristics to his model: a slightly rounded forehead, two large expressive eyes, a straight nose, a thick-lipped mouth, and a bushy beard. The three-quarter view and dark background both call to mind Flemish and Dutch painting, as well as seventeenth-century Spanish painting, which Picasso examined extensively in his artistic maturity. But the great gentleness and psychological candor that emanates from this figure of a man's head, which has the plastic intensity of a painting, is perhaps even more evocative of Raphael's Baldassare Castiglione (1514-1515) at the Louvre Museum, in which the artist portrays the most perfect embodiment of the gentiluòmo (gentleman) of the Italian Renaissance: the courtier described in Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, who expressed his rich sentimental life with discretion-an ideal that Picasso surely aspired to.