The Siege of Jerusalem: Great Heavenly Temptation of Saint Matthew (Le siège de Jérusalem: grande tentation céleste de Saint Matorel)

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The Siege of Jerusalem: Great Heavenly Temptation of Saint Matthew (Le siège de Jérusalem: grande tentation céleste de Saint Matorel)

Artist Pablo Picasso (Spanish (active France), 1881-1973)

Publisher (Daniel) Henry Kahnweiler, Paris, 1914

Printer etching: Eugène Delatre, Paris, text: Paul Birault, Paris

Author Max Jacob (French, 1876-1944)

Date1914

DimensionsBook: H: 8 7/8 in. (226 mm); W: 6 1/4 in. (159 mm); Depth: 7/8 in. (23 mm).
Page (untrimmed): H: 8 13/16 in. (224 mm); W: 6 3/16 in. (157 mm).
Image: H: 6 3/16 in. (157 mm); W: 4 9/16 in. (116 mm).

MediumOriginal prints: 1 etching, 1drypoint, and 1 drypoint with etching. Text: letterpress in black with red. Paper: Van Gelder cream laid paper.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss in honor of Barbara K. Sutherland

Object number

1984.874

Not on View

Label TextThe final volume in the Jacob-Matorel trilogy, this is Picasso’s second illustrated book and the last of his early Cubist illustrations, exemplifying a more abstract Cubist style. After SAINT MATOREL, Jacob wrote LES OEUVRES BURLESQUES ET MYSTIQUES DE FRERE MATOREL, which was published in 1912 and illustrated with 66 woodcuts by Andre Derain. LE SIEGE DE JERUSALEM completed the Matorel-Jacob trilogy, and became Picasso's second illustrated book. At first glance, Picasso's three cubist etchings (two female nudes, one still life with a skull) seemed to have little relation to the disconcerting text. The plot revolves around a multitude of characters who are fighting around poor Matorel in an apocalyptic war for the conquest of celestial Jerusalem. Jacob blends the grotesque and the sublime in an atmosphere that shifts from dream to nightmare. Picasso’s illustrations visually echo the text's difficult ambiguity.Published Referencescf. Garvey, Eleanor M., The Artist & the Book, 1860--1960, Boston, 1961, no. 223

cf. Ray, Gordon N., The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 1700 to 1914, vol. II, New York, 1982, no. 391, repr.

cf. Goeppert, Sebastian, et al., Pablo Picasso: The Illustrated Books, Catalogue raisonné, Geneva, 1983, no. 3

cf. Wheeler, Monroe, Modern Painters and Sculptors as Illustrators, New York, 1946, p. 108

cf. The Frank Crowninshield Collection of Modern French Illustrated Books, New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1943, no. 595

cf. Strachan, W. J., The Artist and the Book in France: the 20th Century livre d'artiste, New York, 1969, p. 339

cf. Johnson, Robert Flynn, Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870--2000: the Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, San Francisco, 2001, no. 17.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Picasso as an Illustrator, 1988, no. 2

Toledo Museum of Art, The Bareiss Collection of Illustrated Books from Toulouse-Lautrec to Kiefer, 1985, no. 56.