Pablo Picasso Poissons (Fishes), 1950

In the early 1950s, during his fruitful years working at the Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris, Pablo Picasso turned his attention to the life of the sea, producing a spirited series of ceramic fish that merged his boundless imagination with the tactile warmth of hand-shaped clay. The Ceramic Fishes of 1950 are far from naturalistic depictions; instead, they are exuberant reinventions, their forms simplified and stylized into playful silhouettes, often adorned with bold incisions, whimsical painted eyes, and vibrant glazes that shimmer like scales in sunlight. In these works, Picasso captured not only the fluid elegance of aquatic life, but also the elemental vitality he so often drew from Mediterranean culture—the fish as both an ancient symbol of abundance and a reminder of the coastal life that surrounded him. Their rounded, almost totemic shapes feel at once ancient and modern, evoking Greek and Roman maritime imagery while bearing the unmistakable mark of Picasso’s daring, childlike line. Part sculpture, part vessel, each ceramic fish reveals the artist’s joy in transforming humble clay into something alive with movement and personality, affirming his belief that the everyday could be made extraordinary through the alchemy of art.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Pablo Picasso Poissons (Fishes), 1950 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices accompanying the final sale of the work):

1. Ramié, Alain. Picasso Catalogue of the edited ceramic works 1947-1971. Madoura: Galerie Madoura, 1988. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 117.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this work.