Pablo Picasso, Le Clown (The Clown), 1962

Artist: Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)
Title:Le Clown (The Clown), 1962
Medium:Color lithograph on vellum paper
Sheet Size:25 5/8 in x 19 11/16 in (65 cm x 50 cm)
Framed Size:33 in x 38 7/8 in (83.8 cm x 98.7 cm)
Edition:Numbered from the edition 200 in pencil in the lower left corner.
Signature:This work is hand signed by Pablo Picasso (Malaga, 1881 – Mougins, 1973) in pencil in the lower right corner; also signed and dated in the stone in the lower right: ‘Picasso | 24.1.62.’
ID #W-5983

Historical Description

Pablo Picasso Le Clowne (The Clown), 1962 is exemplary of Picasso’s incredible childlike curiosity and his whimsical nature. Picasso has used a simple palate of bright primary colors to create the face of his clown in alternating yellow, blue, and red. Crowned in yellow, bright blue eyes wink out from the page. A swirling, red and yellow spiral nose draws us into the center of the face and then the cheeks burst playfully with stars. There is so much delight in the face of the clown, that one cannot help but smile along beside him.

Created in 1962, this color lithograph on vellum paper is work is hand signed by Pablo Picasso (Malaga, 1881 – Mougins, 1973) in pencil in the lower right corner; also signed and dated in the stone in the lower right: ‘Picasso | 24.1.62.’ and numbered from the edition of 200 in pencil in the lower left. This lithograph was made based on chalk drawing that Picasso completed earlier in the same year for the newspaper Le Patriote.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Pablo Picasso The Clown (Le Clowne), 1962 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Kay, Helen. Picasso’s World of Children. New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc, 1965. The work is discussed on page 11 and illustrated on page 181.
2. The Picasso Project, Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Sixties I 1960-1963, 2002, the original drawing listed as catalogue raisonné no.
3. Texas A&M University. The Online Picasso Project. www.picasso.tamu.edu. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. OPP. 62:232.
4. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Pablo Picasso The Clown (Le Clowne), 1962 is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.