balzacs in lower case and picassos without capitals (balzacs en bas de casse & picassos sans majuscule)

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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)

Date1957

DimensionsPortfolio: 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).

MediumOriginal prints: 8 transfer lithographs. Reproduction: line block reproduction of a lithograph. Text: letterpress. Paper: Arches cream wove paper, watermarked.

ClassificationBooks

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

Object number

1984.915

Not on View

Label TextPicasso 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").Published Referencescf. Goeppert, Sebastian, et al., Pablo Picasso: The Illustrated Books, Catalogue raisonné, Geneva, 1983, no. 86

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. 76.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Picasso as an Illustrator, Jan. 23-May 29, 1988, no. 40.