Ink, paper; 12 x 18.5 cm (sheet);
Signed p. g.: Picasso (in ink);
inscription p. g. (illegible, in pen);
date. at bottom: 8.5.59. (in ink);
on back of hotel stationery: HOTEL D'EUROPE / AVIGNON (in print) and below: MENE MAISON HOTEL DE L'EPEE - AUXERRE (in ink)
Provenance:
private collection, Germany
Handmade drawing, signed and dated personally by Pablo Picasso. Next to the graphic works that often appear, this class object, executed by the hand of a legend of European contemporary art, is unique.
The distinctive dove of peace motif was created by the artist on the occasion of his stay at the 1948 World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace in Wroclaw, Poland. Painted on a napkin of a hotel restaurant, it entered the canon as a modernized symbol of the pursuit of peace between nations. The artist's membership in the French Communist Party at the time, the ideology surrounding the organization of the congress, as well as the Lenin Prize awarded to the artist for this work, expand the knowledge of the historical context of the work's creation. Artistically - it has become one of the most recognizable motifs in the artist's work. With masterful nonchalance and freedom of laid contours, it still delights today.
The story of the creation of the work is interesting. Just as in Breslau, it was painted on a napkin of the Monopol Hotel, so this drawing was created on paper with the seal of the Hôtel d'Europe Avignon - ranked among the oldest hotels in France. Thus, it was probably created on the occasion of one of the painter's stays there. It is worth noting that this hotel, in its more than two hundred years of tradition, hosted a number of personalities of the world of culture or politics, starting with Napoleon Bonaparte, John Stuart Mill, Salvador Dali, Charlie Chaplin and many others.
The works offered: "The Dove of Peace" and "Composition," were created in a small two-year interval. The late 1950s and early 1960s were marked by changes in the artist's personal life. In 1961, he married his second wife Jacqueline Roque. He remained with her for the rest of his life. As a wedding gift, he bought a villa in the south of France near Mougins. The Côte d'Azur was the site of the filmmaker's frequent stays. Cannes, Antibes, Vallauris, Avignon are just a few places associated with the artist. In the mature period of his career, Picasso took up the creation of ceramics, sculpture, made cycles of watercolors and lithographs, among other things.
