Lot 76 D

In 1950 Pablo Picasso occupied himself intensively with the motif of the goat. In addition to his ambitious picture of a reclining goat, a painting on canvas measuring over two metres in width, he also created a free-standing and likewise quite large sculpture of a goat, which was one of the first pieces he assembled out of found objects. Picasso’s wife at that time, Françoise Gilot, has vividly described how he proceeded with this sculpture: “A palm leaf served as the spine, an old willow-wicker basket as the belly, pieces of iron and wood as legs, two ceramic jugs as udders, a tin can as breastbone and grapevines as horns and beard: the animal was formed gradually in plaster, which enclosed this whole motley assortment of parts and held them together […]” (cited in: Picasso-Museum Paris, München 1985, p. 145.). The sculpture was realised in plaster and later in bronze as well.
The extensively elaborated and softly modelled pencil drawing “Étude pour la chèvre” is presumably also to be placed within this context. With rapid, confident strokes of the pencil, Picasso has sketched the goat’s trunk, its long neck and its raised head with an open mouth. He has used deliberate smudging to suggest its shaggy fur and provide the body with three-dimensional form. A delightful aspect of this sheet is the second drawing in the lower right corner, where he has experimented with the depiction of the goat’s head as seen from the front.