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balzacs in lower case and picassos without capitals (balzacs en bas de casse & picassos sans majuscule)
Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish (active France), 1881-1973)
Publisher: Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, 1957 (under the direction of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler)
Printer: text: L'Imprimerie Union, [Paris]; plates: Mourlot Frères, [Paris]
Author: Michel Leiris (French, 1901-1990)
Date: 1957
Dimensions:
Portfolio: H: 13 9/16 in. (344 mm); W: 10 1/4 in. (261 mm); Depth: 5/8 in. (16 mm).
Book: H: 13 1/16 in. (331 mm); W: 9 7/8 in. (251 mm); Depth: 1/4 in. (7 mm).
Page (untrimmed): H: 13 1/16 in. (331 mm); W: 9 7/8 in. (251 mm).
Image: H: 8 11/16 in. (220 mm); W: 6 9/16 in. (166 mm).
Medium: Original prints: 8 transfer lithographs.
Reproduction: line block reproduction of a lithograph.
Text: letterpress.
Paper: Arches cream wove paper, watermarked.
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Gift of Molly and Walter Bareiss in honor of Barbara K. Sutherland
Object number: 1984.915
Label Text:Picasso made 11 portraits of the 19-th century French novelist Honoré de Balzac in November 1952. (Balzac's text LE CHEF-D'OEUVRE INCONNU was illustrated by Picasso in 1931). Five years later, Michel Leiris decided to publish 8 of them (accompanied by an essay) with the assistance of his wife's gallery. In the essay, Leiris claims that Picasso's portraits of Balzac are not the Balzac of literary history. Rather they are portraits of an ordinary man, such as one might see on the street, as common as or as unfamous as you or me, and thus they are "balzacs." The name, as the title suggests, is not capitalized, and it is in lower case. Thus, the word "balzacs" Leiris contends are as generic as "statues" or "basins" or "picassos" (as in "come and see my picassos").
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