The Pigeons II, 12/09/1957 print by Pablo Picasso - limited edition of 1000 copies

In 1957, Picasso was knee-deep in painting his Las Meninas suite. He broke off analysing Velasquez for a while and started painting the young pigeons he saw in the pigeon-loft of his studio in La Californie near Cannes. 

In the words of the Museu Picasso, Barcelona:
"As in the other works in the Las Meninas series, Picasso experimented with light, colour and space (in the pigeon paintings.. All nine works have the same structure: the compartmentalised dovecote to the left, the windowsill with a few pigeon chicks underneath, and the landscape of the Bay of Cannes in the rest of the canvas, save for a hint of the window frame in the upper area and to the right..
On the subject of why the artist chose this theme, we should not forget that it was a motif his father had repeatedly explored and which had also captured Picasso’s attention as a boy... These paintings revisit the theme of the window, at once an opening and a frame that creates a dialogue between interior and exterior... The window motif also evokes Matisse, who repeatedly used it in his oeuvre. Furthermore, Matisse, who passed away in 1955, had also made Picasso a present of two young doves."

Image format: 52 x 64.2 cm
Sheet format: 60 x 80 cm

5-colour frequency-modulated print on 260g Rives laid paper.
Limited edition: 1,000 copies.

© Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Photographer: Gasull Fotografia
© Succession Picasso, Paris 2016