Pablo Picasso Ceramic, Bearded Yan, 1963

Drawing inspiration from Greek mythology, Picasso recreates the visage of a yan, or faun on the face of this pitcher.  The expressive curls of his beard and mane accent his furrowed brow and mysterious grin.  The most intriguing feature are his flushed cheeks, translated not with color, but with the manipulation of the clay with the edge of a knife – first with three distinct tick marks on either side and a slight scraping to distort the color and grain of the clay; this is a fascinating and innovative detail to the overall composition.

Georges Bloch stated of Picasso’s ceramic works, ‘…in approach, material and technique is as novel as it is interesting.  Pottery, gleaming white discs with relief designs, monochrome or brightly coloured ovals, dishes and even jugs and vases here serve as bearers of compositions whose themes express the joyous, life-loving side of Picasso’s work.  They are printed from blocks and stamps fashioned by the master over a period of more than twenty years in the Madoura pottery workshop in Vallauris.” (Bloch 7)

Created on August 30, 1963, this turned pitcher is made of red earthenware clay with black engobe decoration engraved by a knife.  The underside has been inscribed and stamped with ‘Madoura Plein Feu’ and ‘Edition Picasso’; with handwritten inscriptions, ‘Edition Picasso | 44/300 | Madoura’ (out of a total edition of 300 numbered works).

Illustrated in:

1. Ramié, A. (1988). Picasso: Catalogue of the Edited Ceramic Works, 1947 – 1971. Madoura: Vallauris. Ceramic plaque listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 513 on pg. 256.
2. Ramié, G. (1976). Picasso’s Ceramics. Viking Press: NY. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 749 on pg. 281 (another version illustrated).