This work is based upon a drawing that Picasso created in coloured crayons and chalk on 19th May 1964. During the 1960s Picasso sustained an intense focus on the male form, producing an acclaimed series of portraits in a variety of media.

Writing in 1988 for the Late Picasso exhibition held at the Tate Gallery, Marie-Laure Bernadac argued that “The most striking feature of the late period is undoubtedly its vitality… Accumulation and speed were the only defences he had left in his fight to the death with time. Every work he created was a part of himself, a particle of life, a point scored against death. ‘I have less and less time’, he said, ‘and I have more and more to say’. What allowed him to gain time, to go faster, was his recourse to conventional signs, formal abbreviations, the archetypal figure that concentrates the essence of what he has to say."

While many of these late male portraits depicted young, virile figures, this image depicts an old man who bears more than a passing resemblance to Picasso himself. In its immediacy of execution, vivid colour palette and intense gaze, the drawing expresses a sense of undiminished energy and determination.

In 1969 the drawing was selected for reproduction as a lithographic poster to celebrate the work of René Char (1907-1998), an important French poet and activist with whom Picasso shared a close friendship. The lithograph was transcribed from the drawing by Henri Deschamps, Picasso's favourite and most trusted master printer at the Atelier Mourlot. Between 1945 and 1973 they worked together frequently, and Picasso turned to Deschamps whenever a painting or drawing that did not already exist as an original print needed to be reproduced.

This lithograph is a rare proof before the text for the poster was added. Boldly hand-signed by Picasso in blue crayon, it's a fabulous example of the artist's undimmed vitality in his ninth decade.

So Cute!

s u g a r, s p i c e, & a l l t h i n g s n i c e

So
Cute!