Pablo PICASSO. Sheet of drawings, signed, [1906]; 15.7 x 20 - Lot 22

Pablo PICASSO. Sheet of drawings, signed, [1906]; 15.7 x 20 cm. Sketches for the illustration of Apollinaire's Bestiaire. Three red ink drawings of a chick, with arabesques and pen strokes. Two "Picasso" signatures on the right side, one in blue pencil, the other in graphite. [The idea of composing poems about animals, more or less fabulous, had come to [Apollinaire] in 1906. At that time, Picasso was engraving woodcuts, especially animals [...] Drawings were lying around the rue Ravignan studio, and Apollinaire, on seeing them, had conceived the idea of accompanying his friend's woodcuts with poems." P.M. Adéma, Guillaume Apollinaire, 1968, p. 172. In the end, it was Raoul Dufy who illustrated Le Bestiaire, published in 1911]. This chick can be found on a sheet of sketches of several animals for Le Bestiaire in the Musée Picasso, reproduced in Picasso/Apollinaire, Correspondance (1992, plate 23, p. 79). And Picasso woodcut this chick (Geiser 214).