PABLO PICASSO, The Old King / Le Vieux Roi, 1963

Original Hand Signed and Numbered Linoleum Cut in Colours on Arches vellum paper

Paper Size: 75 x 62 cm / 29.5 x 24.4 in

Image Size: 64 x 52.5 cm / 25.1 x 20.6 in 

This original linoleum cut is hand signed in pencil by the artist "Picasso" in the lower right margin.
It is also numbered in pencil "42/160" in the lower left margin. It is dated in the plate at the upper right corner "14-26.1.1963" (14-26 January 1963.) It was printed in 1963 in a limited edition of 160 signed and numbered impressions. The paper bears the Arches watermark. 

This work was created during the later years of artists life with Picasso only dying ten years later. Despite this, the linocut displays the same colourful and bold naive charm, typical of much of Picasso's works. The Kings floppy crown and playful ruff are reminiscent of Picasso's clowns, harlequin and circus paintings and drawings. He returned to this subject many times, and like many twentieth century artists explored through these subjects the themes of childhood, theatricality and display.

Literature:
Bloch, Georges. 1975. Pablo Picasso: Tome I, Catalogue de l'oeuvre Grave et Lithographie 1904-1967, edition Kornfeld et Klipstein, Berne.
Reference: Bloch 1152

Condition: Excellent Condition. Colours are vivid and fresh.

Baden-Württemberg’s top art fair, Art Karlsruhe, came to a close on Sunday with a record 50,000 visitors streaming through its halls over the past week. For its tenth anniversary edition, the fair welcomed 220 galleries from 13 countries.  Though certainly still a regional fair, sales topped those in recent memory, with a significant number of collectors coming in from Switzerland and France.
Those collectors were decidedly safe in their purchases focusing on established, Impressionist, modern and post-modern artists such as Sigmar Polke, Josef Albers, Markus Lüpertz, and Camille Pissarro. London’s Gilden’s Arts Gallery sold one Pissarro to an unnamed German collection as well as several other works by Max Pechstein, Max Beckmann, André Derain and Hugo Scheiber. Gallery director Petra Kaffeesieder noting their pleasant surprise that the metabolism collectors in the region have for high-priced works.

from
http://blogs.artinfo.com/berlinartbrief/2013/03/11/art-karlsruhe-touts-visitor-record-and-significant-sales-for-its-10th-anniversary/