Pablo Picasso
(Spanish, 1881 - 1973)
Le Repas Frugal, 1904
etching on Van Gelder wove paper
18 1/4 x 15 inches.
Property from the Collection of James and Edythe Cloonan, Chicago, Illinois
Literature:
Bloch 1

Provenance:
Sotheby's: New York, November 6, 1992 [lot 319]
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Lot Essay:

Nothing more clearly shows us Picasso's genius than his etching Le Repas Frugal. Created at the age of 23, the second print he made, with no training in printmaking, it is indisputably one of the greatest graphic works in the history of the medium. The only print linked to his Blue Period, Le Repas Frugal was created in 1904, just after the artist moved from Spain to Paris.

During this time, the young Picasso lived in a dilapidated Montmartre tenement, struggling to make ends meet while pursuing his passion. His financial situation was dire and he found himself often reusing materials for his paintings. Similarly, the zinc plate for Le Repas Frugal was a used plate given to him by fellow artist and Spaniard, Joan Gonzalez. Gonzalez had used the plate for an etching of a landscape and the plate was mostly wiped of that image before Picasso etched his iconic scene onto the plate. Approximately 30 prints were pulled from this zinc plate before it was sold to Ambrose Vollard. Then, in order to make an edition of 250 for the Saltimbanques portfolio, Vollard reinforced the plate through 'steel-facing,' a form of electroplating which deposits a microscopically thin layer of iron to the surface of the plate thus strengthening the metal so that the relatively soft image does not lose detail from one impression to the next. Lot 118 is from this portfolio printed in 1914 on Van Gelder Zonen paper.

Depicting a couple before a table, it is best summed up by Picasso scholar Pierre Daix: 'This Frugal Repast unites a blind man who seeks comfort near his companion before a humble meal reduced to bread and wine, and is the quintessential depiction of the humanity of his Blue Period, with its astonishing skill of etched and cross-hatched lines...' The blind man's face is turned away as the woman, Picasso's then lover Madeleine, stares blankly in the direction of the viewer. You can sense the strong pull of Spain in the elongated El Greco-esque fingers of the sitters, but also the poverty and hope that is synonymous with Montmartre at the turn of the century.