554 - Pablo Picasso (1881 Málaga – Mougins near Cannes 1973)

Pablo Picasso (1881 Málaga – Mougins near Cannes 1973) Le repas frugal Etching on chamois-colored Arches handmade paper. (1904). Approx. 46 x 38 cm (sheet size approx. 58.5 x 44 cm). One of only a few copies made before the printing plate was steel-etched. Unsigned. Very rare. Excellent, deep black, and burred print of high quality. Bloch 1; Baer 2 II a. • One of Picasso’s most significant early masterpieces in printmaking, marking the transition from the Blue Period to the Rose Period • An exceptionally rare, deep-black print made before the printing plate was steel-etched • A poignant depiction of human poverty and vulnerability from Picasso’s early years in Paris With “Le repas frugal,” Pablo Picasso—then only 22 years old—created one of the most poignant works of his early career. The etching was created during a decisive period of upheaval in his life: After several stays in Paris, he left Barcelona in the spring of 1904 and moved into a modest studio in the so-called Bateau-Lavoir on Montmartre. The dilapidated building housed numerous young artists and writers, many of whom lived in precarious economic circumstances. Picasso himself had not yet established himself on the Paris art market and was living under difficult financial conditions. In this environment, where artistic innovation and material hardship were closely intertwined, he found essential inspiration for his visual world. His interest in social outcasts began as early as his time in Barcelona. Within the local artistic avant-garde scene, he encountered art that deliberately addressed the dark side of modern urban life. In particular, the socially critical depictions of the Catalan painter Isidre Nonell are considered a major influence on his focus on the poor and the marginalized. In Paris, Picasso continued to explore this world. Beggars, the blind, lonely women, and later the performers of traveling circuses became central figures in his art. “Le repas frugal” was created at the threshold between Picasso’s Blue and Rose periods. An emaciated couple sits at a sparsely set table, on which there are only a few pieces of bread, a plate, two glasses, and a bottle of wine. Although the two figures are physically close, their melancholy and loneliness make them seem isolated from one another. Their elongated limbs, gaunt faces, and the composition—reduced to just a few objects—lend the scene an almost timeless expressiveness. Picasso does not depict poverty and deprivation as an anecdotal scene from everyday life, but condenses them into a universal representation of human vulnerability. The figures’ physical emaciation and their silent despair tie directly into the visual language of the Blue Period, while at the same time continuing that intense exploration of human relationships and marginalized social existences that would also shape his subsequent works. The two figures depicted can be linked to key motifs in Picasso’s immediate artistic development. The woman is identified in the literature as Madeleine, Picasso’s lover in Paris at the time, about whose life very little is known. The blind man, on the other hand, is based on a figure with whom Picasso had already engaged intensively during his time in Barcelona. He appears in several studies and, in particular, in the 1903 painting “Le repas de l’aveugle,” which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In the juxtaposition of these two figures, Picasso’s Spanish past and his new Parisian world converge. Noteworthy is the technical mastery with which Picasso achieves this effect. “Le repas frugal” is only his second print, following the 1899 etching “El Zurdo,” and marks a decisive starting point for his extensive body of printmaking. During its creation, he was assisted by his artist friend Ricard Canals, who already had experience with etching techniques. Picasso used a zinc plate on which Joan González had previously begun a landscape. The earlier image was not completely removed, so traces of the original composition can still be discerned in the upper right corner of the picture. This unusual reuse of the plate lends the work an additional historical distinction. Picasso worked on the plate using, among other tools, a scraper, which allows existing lines to be softened or removed. Through finely graded hatching, dense line structures, and pronounced light-dark contrasts, he achieves an extraordinary atmospheric density. Of particular significance here is the “plate tone,” which arises when be