Lot 29 D

Ceramics – a material Picasso encountered by chance in 1946, during a stay in the town of Vallauris in the French Riviera. This medium presented the artist with new possibilities for combining three-dimensional and painterly compositions. Picasso would go on to create an extensive ceramic oeuvre in the Madoura pottery workshop of Suzanne and Georges Ramié: they initially provided the artist with traditional pottery, but this was soon followed by his own unconventional creations.
Our ceramic jug “Tarasque” was created in 1954 in a small edition of only 50, and it is scarcely to be found on the market today.
While the painted design is reminiscent of Moorish architectural details, the unusual development of its sculptural form calls to mind the zoomorphic forms of pre-Columbian containers. An avian body on the one hand – on the other, the logic of the form on four short feet becomes clarified through the painted design of the rear side. A face with a wide row of teeth and bat ears presents itself here.
According to a 13th-century legend, “Tarasque” was a dragon who pursued his evil ways in a village – later Tarascon – upstream from Arles until he was pacified by St Martha’s singing and tamed by her.