PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) AND ÉDOUARD PIGNON (1905-1993)

This work was created in a villa on the French Riviera that Pignon and his partner Hélène Parmelin had rented in 1957. Good friends of Picasso and Jacqueline Roque, they had invited them to stay with them. One morning, Picasso woke up early and locked himself in the dining room with a canvas and three pieces of paper. He came out shortly after with the papers now pinned to the canvas. "Paint something around the papers, whatever comes to mind" Picasso told Pignon (quoted in H. Parmelin, Picasso sur la place, Paris, 1959, p. 246). Pignon began to paint trees, vineyards and hills, like those found around the south of France. After the oil had dried, Picasso removed the papers from the canvas and the fauns he had drawn in the dining room materialized: there were now three colorful fauns dancing in Pignon's summer landscape. A game of cadavre exquis had been played!