Printer: Mourlot (1 of 300 Editions)

Dimensions: 58 x 39 cm

Condition: Very good

Available: In a bespoke frame

Description: Created in 1948 for the annual Poteries, Fleurs et Parfums exhibition in Vallauris, it captures the moment Picasso fell under clay's spell. What began as a commission to design a poster for a local exhibition soon became a lifelong creative pursuit, leading him to produce more than 4,000 ceramic works and helping transform the small Provençal town into an international centre for modern ceramics.

Hand-designed by Picasso and printed by Mourlot in a limited edition of just 300, this was one of only three posters created for the 1948 exhibition, marking the beginning of his celebrated Vallauris poster series. Over the following seventeen years, Picasso would design a further fifteen exhibition posters, each chronicling his enduring relationship with the town that inspired one of the most inventive chapters of his career.

For collectors, this work represents far more than a beautiful composition. Its rarity, historical importance and direct connection to one of the defining moments in Picasso's artistic journey make it especially desirable. More than an original lithograph, it captures the moment one of the twentieth century's greatest artists discovered an entirely new medium, securing its place as one of the most significant and enduring exhibition posters of his career.

Two colour Lithograph on vellum.

Artist: Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, his extraordinary artistic genius made him the ‘rock star’ of the Modern Art world pioneering cubism, surrealism, expressionism and collage. Throughout his long career, he produced more than 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, theatre sets, and costumes. From the mid-1940s, he also worked with the Mourlot studios in Paris and created over 400 lithographs and exhibition posters. As well as Fernand Mourlot, Henri Deschamps was Picasso's favourite and most trusted master printer at the studio and they collaborated together from 1945 right up until Picasso’s death in 1973.