Linocut on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pablo-picasso-1767" aria-label="More by Pablo Picasso" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Pablo Picasso</a>
Portrait a Woman after Cranach Younger
Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler, accessioned 1994
abstraction
actions: postures and motions
adults
clothing and personal items
Cranach the Younger, Lucas, painting, ‘Portrait of a Woman’
figure
fine art and design, named works
from recognisable sources
hands clasped
jewellery
objects
people
woman
<p>Although he had already made one linocut in 1939 (<i>Pour la Tchécoslovaquie. Hommage à un pays martyr</i>), Picasso only started exploring this technique in earnest in 1953-4, with the printer Hidalgo Arnéra in Vallauris. At this time he began to experiment with making linocuts in different colours on separate blocks, which he would then superimpose on the same sheet of paper. He first attempted <i>Portrait of a Woman after Cranach the Younger</i> in two colours on 3 July 1958, but the following day returned to the same subject more ambitiously. On 4 July he made five different linoleum blocks – sepia, yellow, red, blue and black – to be superimposed on each other in that order. He then proceeded to print different proofs, in the process making two different states of the colour blocks and three of the black in order to arrive at the final image. The final version was printed on white Arches wove paper in an edition of approximately fifteen artist’s proofs (of which this is one) plus fifty signed and numbered copies, published by the Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris.</p>
paper print linocut
24 May 2004 – 8 November 2004
2004-11-08
11 December 2004
2004-12-11
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2004-05-24
Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection based display
11 December 2004 – 2 May 2005
2005-05-02
11 December 2004 – 2 May 2005
2005-05-02
2004-12-11
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2004-12-11
Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection based display
25 February 2009 – 7 June 2009
2009-06-07
25 February 2009 – 7 June 2009
2009-06-07
2009-02-25
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2009-02-25
Picasso: Challenging the Past
Loan-out
15 February 2020 – 3 January 2021
2021-01-03
14 March 2020 – 3 January 2021
2021-01-03
2020-03-14
Compton Verney (Compton Verney, UK)
2020-02-15
Cranach: Innovation and Inspiration
Loan-out
Portrait of a Woman after Cranach the Younger
image: 645 × 533 mm
support: 765 × 570 mm
frame: 880 × 710 × 40 mm
Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of <a href="/search?gid=999999791" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler</a>, accessioned 1994
<p>Although he had already made one <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/linocut" title="Glossary definition for 'Linocut'"><span>linocut</span></a> in 1939 (<i>Pour la Tchécoslovaquie. Hommage à un pays martyr</i>), Picasso only started exploring this technique in earnest in 1953-4, with the printer Hidalgo Arnéra in Vallauris. At this time he began to experiment with making linocuts in different colours on separate blocks, which he would then superimpose on the same sheet of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>. He first attempted <i>Portrait of a Woman after Cranach the Younger</i> in two colours on 3 July 1958, but the following day returned to the same subject more ambitiously. On 4 July he made five different linoleum blocks – sepia, yellow, red, blue and black – to be superimposed on each other in that order. He then proceeded to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> different proofs, in the process making two different states of the colour blocks and three of the black in order to arrive at the final image. The final version was printed on white Arches wove paper in an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of approximately fifteen artist’s proofs (of which this is one) plus fifty signed and numbered copies, published by the Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris.
<br/>
<br/>Picasso’s dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler has explained the genesis of this work: ‘One of Picasso’s notable characteristics was his need to transform existing works of art, to compose “variations on a theme”, as it were. His point of departure was often simply a reproduction in a book; or even a postcard sent by myself, such as Cranach the Younger’s <i>Portrait of a Woman</i> [1564] in Vienna [collection Kunsthistorisches Museum], which became his first linocut in colour. Among other things, what struck him in particular about this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> was the way the woman’s shadow “rhymes” with the upper part of her body. “How pleased Gris would have been”, he said to me ... This need to transform was certainly an important characteristic of Picasso’s genius.’ (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, ‘Introduction: A Free Man’, in Roland Penrose and John Golding, eds., <i>Picasso 1881/1973</i>, London 1973, pp.8-9.)
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Brigitte Baer, <i>Picasso Peintre-graveur: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre gravé et des monotypes, 1946-1958</i>, vol.4, Bern 1988, pp.392-396, reproduced p.392 in colour
<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli, ‘Pablo Picasso’, in Jennifer Mundy (ed.), <i>Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern, London 2004, pp.88-90, 100, reproduced p.101 in colour
<br/>
<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli
<br/>February 2004</p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction actions: postures and motions adults clothing and personal items Cranach the Younger, Lucas, painting, ‘Portrait of a Woman’ figure fine art and design, named works from recognisable sources hands clasped jewellery objects people woman