What Is This Picasso
What Is This Picasso
Signed Print
David Hockney
£3,400-£5,000
$6,500-$9,500 Value Indicator
$6,000-$8,500 Value Indicator
¥30,000-¥45,000 Value Indicator
€3,950-€6,000 Value Indicator
$35,000-$50,000 Value Indicator
¥650,000-¥950,000 Value Indicator
$4,250-$6,500 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Intaglio
Edition size: 200
Year: 1976
Size: H 46cm x W 52cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Artwork | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Sotheby's New York - United States | What Is This Picasso - Signed Print | |||
| February 2024 | Rago Arts and Auction Center - United States | What Is This Picasso - Signed Print | |||
| March 2018 | Bonhams Knightsbridge - United Kingdom | What Is This Picasso - Signed Print | |||
| March 2018 | Forum Auctions London - United Kingdom | What Is This Picasso - Signed Print | |||
| June 2015 | Bonhams New Bond Street - United Kingdom | What Is This Picasso - Signed Print | |||
| May 2013 | Christie's New York - United States | What Is This Picasso - Signed Print | |||
| February 2012 | Christie's London - United Kingdom | What Is This Picasso - Signed Print |
Meaning & Analysis
Featuring a curtain, a still life of flowers, a grid like pattern and clouds of blue ink, this work from David Hockney’s The Blue Guitar series is in keeping with much of the subject matter and style throughout the portfolio. Here though, Hockney has also decided to include a copy of Picasso's head of Dora Maar, in green ink – a nod, along with the title, to the great painter who sparked Wallace Stevens’s imagination with his 1903 work The Old Guitarist. Stevens went on to write ‘The Blue Guitar’ in 1937, a book length poem which Hockney then came across in 1976 while on holiday on Fire Island. He proceeded to make the 20 etchings that make up this portfolio which later became a book. While the works are interesting for their subject matter, and their intention to not illustrate but merely accompany the poem, they are also notable for their technique which saw hockney putting new skills to work. In 1973 he had been invited to Paris to create a print on the occasion of Picasso’s death. There he worked closely with Aldo Crommelynck who had been Picasso’s preferred master printer and learned the sugar lift aquatint technique which allowed him to bring subtle variations of colour to his previously monochrome etchings.
