Pablo Picasso (Franco-Spanish, 1881-1973) Portrait of a Bearded Man, 1969 Black felt pen. Sent "Pour mon ami Brassaï", signed "Picasso" and dated "12.10.69". On the page of the Czechoslovak publisher Tatran's 1966 book devoted to the two artists. Height 19.5 Width 18.5 cm. Provenance: former Brassaï collection (1899-1984). Pablo Picasso, 1969. A black felt pen portrait of a faun. Signed and dedicated "to my friend Brassaï". On a page of a 1966 book about both artists. Picasso Committee certificate dated April 10, 2024. Exhibitions : - "Brassaï-Picasso Conversation with Light", Anne Baldassari, Musée Picasso, Paris, February-April 2000. - Brassaï, Paris et Picasso", Musée Picasso Málaga, Brassaï Picasso, November 2021-April 2022. Picasso's portrait of this virile man, with his straight nose, laughing eyes and full beard framing a slight smile, appears on the cover of the Czech edition of his conversations, published by Brassaï with Tatran in 1966. When "l'oeil de Paris" visited the sacred monster on rue de la Boétie in 1932 to portrait him, the friendship between the two expatriates was immediate. Brassaï transcribed Picasso's words at the time: "I like your photos because they're true. The ones you took on rue de la Boétie were like a blood test, allowing us to analyze and diagnose what I was like at that moment". Like graffiti nestled in the hollow of a page, Picasso's free, vivid line drawing recalls the artist's photographic work on fragments of Parisian walls adorned with notches and posters. Brassaï was fascinated by the contrasts and contradictions of Paris; he loved to depict the artistic and intellectual bohemia as well as its interloped corners and walls worn down by popular energy. In this autograph, Picasso pays him a friendly tribute.