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Ambroise Vollard was one of the most influential figures in modern art in Paris. A publisher, gallerist and collector, he worked with many of the greatest artists of the late 19th and 20th century, Renoir, Cézanne and Gaugin, and later, Picasso. He helped shape his promotion and establishing of the avant-garde artists of his day and of the previous generation. Beyond his work as a gallerist, he wrote artist biographies and encouraged many to take on new and extended projects.

His first exhibition of Picasso’s work took place in 1901, and continued through the 1930s. In 1930, Picasso began work on The Vollard Suite, 100 etchings created over seven years exploring themes of classicism that enthralled Picasso throughout his career. The suite ends with three portraits of Vollard. The printer Roger Lacouriere pulled the impressions.

Learn more about Ambroise Vollard at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Portrait of Vollard IV, 1937 Etching and aquatint on Montval laid paper

Portrait of Vollard, II, 1937 Aquatint on Montval laid paper with the Vollard watermark

Portrait of Vollard, III, 1937 Etching on Montval laid paper with the Vollard watermark

Minotaure Aveugle Guidé par une Petite Fille aux Fleurs (Blind Minotaur Guided by a Little Girl with Flowers), 1934 Drypoint etching on Montval laid paper with ‘Picasso’ watermark.

Trois Femmes Nues et une Coupe d’Anémones (Three Women and a Bowl of Anemones), 1933 Etching on Montval paper with Picasso watermark. Pencil signed ‘Picasso’ lower right

Bacchus et Femme Nue Entendue (Bacchus and Reclining Female Nude), 1934 Engraving and drypoint on Montval laid paper with Vollard watermark

Fernand Mourlot was an important collaborator in Picasso’s post-war work. His atelier had a long heritage of printmaking beginning with a commercial print shop in the mid-1850s. It was Fernand who would move the atelier towards fine art, eventually working with the most important artists in Paris, from Manet to Miró. While he began with fine art posters for artists such as Daumier, he was also pivotal in fostering the development of the editioned print. This, in turn, led to a greater emphasis on the expressive artistic focus of a print, rather than the communicative focus inherent in a poster. Mourlot’s catalog of Picasso’s lithographs from all ateliers includes 407 images, spanning a period of fifty years from 1919 to 1969.

Picasso, in typical fashion, concentrated a majority of this work into an intense period of regular collaboration, in the mid-to-late 1940s. He began working with Mourlot in November of 1945, with a portrait of Françoise Gilot as the first of over 300 lithographs he would create with the atelier. Picasso would spend entire days in the studio, obsessively reworking his images. His approach was unusual for the medium. He treated the stone much as he had his earlier engraving plates and linoleum blocks, in that he preferred to rework a single stone.

Learn more about Fernand Mourlot at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Le Modèle et deux Personnages (Model and Two People), 1954 Color lithograph on Arches paper.

Portrait de Famille II (Family Portait II), 1962 Lithograph on Arches wove paper, with full margins.

Femme au Miroir (Woman at the Mirror), 1950 Color Lithograph, Inscribed in pencil verso.

Femme au Miroir (Woman at the Mirror), 1950 Lithograph, Inscribed in pencil verso.

The Departure, 1951 Lithograph

The Departure, 1951 Color Lithograph on Rives paper

Tête de Jeune Fille (Head of a Young Girl), 1947 Lithograph on Arches paper

(L-R: Hidalgo Arnéra, Pablo Picasso, and Roland Penrose.)

Picasso achieved some of his most innovative work materially in the medium of linocut, working closely over a decade with the printer Hidalgo Arnéra. He experimented with the printing methods, from the physical carving and inking of the plates to the chemical makeup of the inks, and created about 200 linocuts in this period. They met while Picasso was living in the south of France and was looking for a way to eliminate the time lost between working on a print and receiving the proof from the ateliers in Paris. Arnéra would run the proofs back and forth to Picasso’s studio in Cannes, printing the proofs in the morning so that Picasso could continue working when he woke.

Arnéra was an involved collaborator in Picasso’s experimentation. He encouraged the artist to try a subtractive method of one-plate printing when he became frustrated with the slowness of multiple plates. While Picasso had occasionally used the linocut technique before to a limited extent, his previous efforts, like those of most artists using the method, essentially mimicked the woodcut. His posters tended to feature large, flat color fields and a strong sense of the carved line. As he worked with Arnéra, however, he developed the medium to its full expressive potential, using methods as unique as sanding the plate for texture and wetting an inked sheet under the shower to achieve particular textural effects.

Picasso often returned to and developed extensively the themes that interested him in all his art forms, from the weeping women to the bullfight. However, even with specific compositions he often returned and experimented with various effects. “Danse Nocturne avec un Hibou” (Nocturnal Dance with an Owl) is one such composition, in which Picasso varied the colors and effects of his proofs as experimentation. The first state, printed in yellow on a black ground (formed by an uncarved plate), is possibly one of a kind, while the impressions printed in white on a black ground were rinsed after printing, giving each a unique final surface.

Similar authentications and annotations by Arnéra appear on many of the linocuts in the Musée National Picasso, “La Guerre et la Paix”, Vallauris. Several of the Arnéra inscriptions from this collection are illustrated in the exhibition catalogue “Picasso à Vallauris / Linogravures”, Musée National Picasso, “La Guerre et la Paix”, Vallauris, 16 June-19 November 2001, ill. 2, 3, 4, 8.

Learn more about Hidalgo Arnéra at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Portrait d’Homme à la Fraise, Variation d’aprè El Greco (Portrait of a Man in a Ruff, Variation after El Greco), 1962 Color linocut on Arches wove with watermark. Inscribed in pencil by the printer, Hidalgo Arnéra, ‘93’

Tête de Histrion (Head of an Actor), 1965 Color linocut on watermarked Arches paper

Picador et Taureau (Picador and Bull), 1959 Color linocut on paper. ‘Epreuve d’essai’ (trial proof) of the fourth and final state, from before the edition of 50.

Pique I, (Pike I) 1959 Color linocut on ‘offset-fort’ paper, with margins. A working proof in black and brown over a light brown background, from before the edition of 50 for Galerie Louise Leiris, 1960.

Picador debout avec son Cheval et une Femme (Standing Picador with Horse and a Woman), 1959 Color linocut on paper.

Pique II (Pike II), 1959 Color linocut on paper. A working proof of the first state of the “Plateau Secondaire” in orange and the first state of the “Plateau principal” in brown over a light brown background.

Danse Nocturne avec un Hibou, 1959 Color linocut on Arches paper.

Danse Nocturne avec un Hibou, 1959 Color linocut on Arches watermarked paper.

Danse nocturne avec un Hibou, 1959 Color linocut on Arches.

Jacqueline au Chapeau Noir (Jacqueline in a Black Hat), 1962 Color linocut on Arches cream wove paper with Arches watermark