Bearded Yan (AR 513) by Pablo Picasso

Provenance:
Acquired directly from the workshop in 1963
Private Collection, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto

Literature:
Alain Ramié, “Picasso: Catalogue of the Edited Ceramic Works 1947-1971”, Vallauris, 1988, catalogue no. 513

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
– Pablo Picasso

In 1946 Picasso met Suzanne and Georges Ramié at an exhibition of pottery in Vallauris, in the Côte d’Azur. They invited him to model a few pieces at their workshop, and the following year, Picasso would begin working at Madoura, creating a substantial body of ceramic and pottery work over the next twenty years that the Ramiés would reproduce and offer for sale as Picasso Editions.

At certain points in his life Picasso’s subject matter drew heavily from Greek mythology, most famously depicting himself as the bull–man in the “Minotauromachy (La Minotauromachie)” etching from 1935. For “Bearded Yan”, Picasso decorated the pitcher with a faun–like face with a curly beard, horn–like eyebrows and a mysterious grin. A consummate innovator, Picasso revealed and showcased the red earthenware while using the edge of a knife to distort the grain and colour of the clay in order to create the effect of flushed cheeks. Designed originally on 30 August 1963, “Bearded Yan” is part of a series of turned pitchers that Picasso created at the workshop, based on the faun or pan figure.