balzacs en bas de casse et picassos sans majuscule (balzacs in lower case and picassos without capitals) Yale University Art Gallery

1952, published 1957

In 1952 Picasso created a series of lithographic portraits of the French writer Honoré de Balzac, best known for his Comédie humaine. In 1957 Galerie Louise Leiris published eight of these lithographs, along with an introductory essay by the French Surrealist Michel Leiris. In his essay, Leiris consid¬ered how Picasso’s identity was at once suspended and fractured in multiple parts. Picasso’s portraits of Balzac likewise create not a single, unified Balzac, but a series of balzacs. Across the series, the viewer is compelled to both look and read, as let¬ters and numbers proliferate in the portraits.

Medium: 8 transfer lithographs with one page of text
Dimensions: sheet: 13 1/2 × 10 1/4 in. (34.3 × 26 cm)
Credit Line: The Ernest C. Steefel Collection of Graphic Art, Gift of Ernest C. Steefel
Accession Number: 1958.52.174.1-.9
Geography: Made in France
Culture: Spanish
Period: 20th century
Classification: Illustrated Books
Disclaimer: Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography

Susan Greenberg Fisher et al., Picasso and the Allure of Language, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2009), 12, 142, 161n.22, 204–5, 209–17, 218, no. 28, pls.1, 3–8, ill.

Object copyright

In Copyright

Additional information

Object/Work type

lithography, paper (fiber product), portfolios (groups of works)

Edition

Edition 9 of 100

Inscriptions

all prints: in plate, lower right: Picasso / 25.11.52 except for 158.52.174.8 [in plate, lower left: Picasso / 7.12.52.]
prints are numbered with Roman numerals, in plate, lower left: I, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII
[1958.52.174.8 is not numbered]

Technical metadata and APIs

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