Pablo Picasso Venus et l'Amour voleur de miel (Venus and Cupid, the Honey Thief), 1960 is subtle in color and grand in scale, this work is the quintessential representation of Picasso’s mature style. It features his interest in the female subject, cubist planer interpretation, form and line, emotion, and elements of the fantastic.

Venus and Cupid emerge from a fantastical wilderness into the frontal plane of the lithograph. Cubist in nature, Venus suffers from complex and unnatural proportions that include voluptuous hips and breasts, dangerously thin limbs, a shrunken head, and an unscrupulous pregnant belly. She modestly covers herself with a diaphanous scarf, as she wears only a large and fashionable sun hat. Her small companion, Cupid, is shown crying, as he looks to Venus guiltily with the stolen fruit in hand. The large scale of the piece allows us to examine the finer details, analyze the style, and truly appreciate the genius of the artist. The work is playful and complex, as Picasso interprets mythology, sexuality, and reality.

Created 1960, this lithograph is based on an earlier gouache painting from 1957. Printed on Arches wove paper with the Arches watermark, this work was printed by Mourlot, Paris, and published by Paul Rosenburg.  Hand signed by Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) in blue crayon in the lower right margin.  The reverse contains the following printed inscription from an additional plate: ‘Venus et l’amour voluer de miel, collection Lehman, le 12.6.57, fait. 13.6.57, Cranach l’Ancien.’ This text was printed in script on a second plate to reflect the original paintings provenance association in the Lehman collection. Cranach l’Ancien is Lucas Cranach the Old One, a fifteenth century painter of mythological subjects, to which this piece is dedicate by Picasso.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Pablo Picasso Venus et l'Amour voleur de miel (Venus and Cupid, the Honey Thief), 1960 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. The Picasso Project. Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: The Fifties II, 1956-1959. San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 2000. The original gouache painting is listed and illustrated as 57-050 on pg. 114.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Pablo Picasso Venus et l'Amour voleur de miel (Venus and Cupid, the Honey Thief), 1960 is presented in a complementary moulding and optical grade Plexiglas.