Lithograph on Arches Velin paper, 33 x 49 cm (inside the mat), framed in a 48 x 64 cm frame; an exclusive edition sponsored by Banca Popolare di Milano.
Publisher: Arti Grafiche Milanesi , produced at the Atelier Fernand Mourlot (founded in 1852 in Paris, the world’s leading center for artistic lithography).
Accompanied by the gallery’s certificate of authenticity.
Pablo Picasso’s series of works titled “Luncheon on the Grass” (orig. “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe”) is an extensive series of variations in which the Spanish master creatively engaged with Édouard Manet’s monumental and, for its time, controversial painting of the same title, known in Poland as “Breakfast on the Grass.”
The series was created mainly between 1959 and 1962 (though some works are dated as early as 1954, when the sketchbook began, and as late as 1964). Picasso created: 27 oil paintings,over 150 drawings, sketches, lithographs, and linocuts.
Picasso was fascinated by Manet’s painting, which caused a scandal in Paris in 1863, marking a breakthrough in modern painting. Through his variations, Picasso engaged in a dialogue with Manet and his approach to the subject of the nude and composition, while incorporating these motifs into his own unique artistic language.
In his series of works, Picasso subjects Manet’s original painting to a radical transformation in accordance with his post-Cubist aesthetic: he retains Manet’s main compositional scheme — two clothed male figures and a nude woman in the foreground, along with another female figure in the background, bathing in a stream.
Manet’s realism and treatment of light are replaced by Cubist, and at times Expressionist, distortions. Picasso employs a more intense, often brighter and simplified color palette, diverging from Manet’s tonal range.
A unique aspect of the series is the realization of Manet’s scene in the form of outdoor sculptures. Picasso created models, which were then realized by the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar in large format using concrete and sandblasting (e.g., the sculpture at Moderna Museet in Stockholm).
The “Lunches on the Grass” series is a testament to Picasso’s late but intense creative output, in which he demonstrated his freedom to draw from tradition while simultaneously deconstructing and transforming it in his characteristic style.
