Pablo Picasso Ceramic (The King) Vase deux anses hautes (Vase with Two High Handles) is a work of majestic quality and one of the artist’s distinctive anthropomorphic ceramics.

Picasso transforms the traditional two-handled vase into a regal female figure dressed in highly embellished clothing, demonstrating his remarkable ability to turn an everyday utilitarian object into a character filled with personality and presence.

This striking Pablo Picasso ceramic vase was created during Picasso’s celebrated collaboration with the Madoura pottery in Vallauris, France. The tall neck of the vessel becomes the woman’s face and head, the two high handles become her arms, and the rounded body forms her elaborately decorated torso. Her hands appear confidently positioned at her hips, giving the figure a commanding, almost ceremonial stance. The black, white, and grey palette lends the composition a sophisticated quality, while the engraved and painted decoration gives the surface remarkable depth and texture.

Picasso’s knife engraving is particularly effective throughout the figure, accentuating the patterns of her clothing and defining her features. Her expressive face looks directly outward with an unwavering gaze, while the decorative motif crowning her forehead reinforces her regal appearance. Every element of the ceramic vessel is incorporated into the human form, illustrating Picasso’s extraordinary ability to move effortlessly between ceramics, painting, drawing, and sculpture.

Created in 1952, Vase deux anses hautes belongs to an important group of Picasso ceramics depicting human figures, in which pitchers, vases, and other vessels were transformed into women, men, faces, and mythological characters. These inventive figurative works have become some of the most recognizable and sought-after Pablo Picasso ceramics from his Madoura period and demonstrate the important role ceramics played in his postwar artistic experimentation.

Pablo Picasso Vase deux anses hautes (Vase with Two High Handles), A.R. 141 is held in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne, providing significant institutional recognition for this particular Picasso ceramic design.

The museum’s example is identified as Vase with two high handles, 1952, and is part of the NGV’s collection of international art.

This turned vase of white earthenware clay features black, white, and grey engobe decoration with knife engraving beneath partial brushed glaze. It is inscribed “Edition Picasso” and “Madoura” and bears the EDITION PICASSO and MADOURA PLEIN FEU pottery stamps on the underside. Vase deux anses hautes was created in an edition of 400 and is fully documented by Alain Ramié as A.R. 141 in the definitive catalogue raisonné of Picasso’s edited ceramic works.

Catalogue Raisonné & Certificate of Authenticity

Pablo Picasso Vase deux anses hautes (Vase with Two High Handles), 1952, A.R. 141 is fully documented and referenced in the following catalogue raisonné. Copies of the relevant catalogue raisonné documentation will be included with the artwork:

Ramié, Alain. Picasso: Catalogue of the Edited Ceramic Works 1947–1971. Madoura: Galerie Madoura, 1988. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné A.R. 141.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

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