PICASSO, Pablo (1881-1973)

PICASSO, Pablo (1881-1973)

Autograph letter signed « Picasso » to Max Pellequer
« La Californie », Cannes, 21 August 1956, 1 p. in-4° in colored oil pastels
Watermark ‘BFK RIVES.’
Faint traces of pastel transfer revealing a hasty fold made by Picasso in order to enclose the sheet, creasing, minute loss to the lower right corner.

Picasso, or the Art of Correspondence

A spectacular letter from the master to his friend Max, executed in ten shades of oil pastel

« Mon cher Max
Encore des feuilles des contributions que je vous envoie. 
Je travaille
Amitié à vous deux et bien à vous
Picasso »

Settled at “La Californie,” in the hills above Cannes, Picasso relied on the good offices of his secretary Jaume Sabartés to handle the bulk of his correspondence. Max Pellequer, a close friend of the painter, was nonetheless among the rare privileged few to receive letters written entirely by Picasso’s own hand. Oil pastels in hand, the painter deploys his nervous, sweeping handwriting, alternating between no fewer than ten colors—so many graphic nuances echoing and harmonizing with elegance across the surface of the sheet.

A banker and discerning art collector, Max Pellequer began assembling a considerable collection of modernist works in the 1920s. In 1920, he married Francine Level, niece of the dealer and businessman André Level. It was through André Level that he first met Picasso in 1914, forging an enduring friendship. Pellequer became one of the artist’s closest friends, as well as his banker and financial advisor. Over more than thirty years, he acquired from the master a remarkable collection of paintings and sculptures.