L'artiste évoque sa passion : la tauromachie

Multi-coloured autograph letter from Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated by the author on June 13, 1957. The document includes the autograph address of his villa ‘La Californie’. 2 pages on one sheet, 22 lines in green, blue and red pencils on a watermarked sheet.
Minor folds. 

An exceptional account of Pablo Picasso's passion for bullfighting, a recurring theme in his art since his very first works painted at the age of eight ("The Little Yellow Picador", 1899). 

Pablo Picasso gives Max Pellequer and his wife details regarding a trip to Arles on July 5, 6 and 7, 1957, to which the artist has invited them along with a handful of friends. With undisguised enthusiasm, he announces that he has booked their rooms at the "Norpinus" [Nord-Pinus] and their seats for the bullfight. Only after providing this essential information does the painter mention the opening of his exhibition at the Réatu Museum and the official dinner with Douglas Cooper, the great collector, and the mayor of Arles, Charles Privat: "Dinner with Cooper & the mayor". A performance of "Aïda at the bullring" is also scheduled during this Arlesian getaway, which ends on the 7th with an intriguing "bull run with the presence of a black king".

In the 1950s, Pablo Picasso and Jacqueline Roque are regular visitors to the Arles bullrings. At that time, the painter is not discovering the city. Fascinated by Van Gogh's portraits, he paints his first Arlésienne in 1912, and his last, featuring Jacqueline, just after writing this letter in 1958. But it is his love of bullfighting that will ultimately bind the Andalusian to the bullfighting capital of Provence. From his early Barcelona works Scène de corrida and courses de Taureaux, presented to Ambroise Vollard in 1901, to the famous and omnipresent theme of the Minotaur, Picasso was one of the main promoters of bullfighting in France. In the late 1950s, Arles becomes the painter's mecca for his passion, immortalised in 1956 by David Douglas Duncan, who photographed Pablo in the Arles bullring, captivated by the bullfights.

This exceptional letter bears witness to the excitement of the artist who, at the height of his international fame, becomes, for the time being, a ‘groupie’ happy to accommodate his friends in the legendary "Norpinus" hotel, known for hosting toreros after their bullfights. Bullfighting also features in the other major events presented by the artist in the 22 lines of our sheet. He announces the opening of his first exhibition at the Musée Réattu, which gives pride of place to the figure of the bull in Picasso's work. Among the paintings on display from July 6 to September 2, 1957, 38 of the artist's artworks will be exhibited for the first time. Picasso, the main lender for this event, will ironically be absent from the opening, too busy painting portraits of Jacqueline using pigeon feathers. The author continues his letter by proposing a dinner with British collector Douglas "Cooper", who, along with the Barcelona Museum, will also be invited to contribute to the exhibition. The "mayor" of Arles, Charles Privat, is the second personality invited to this dinner. Picasso and Privat, who meet for the first time in April 1957, will maintain a fruitful relationship that will conclude in 1971 with the artist's donation of 57 artworks to the Musée Réattu.

In the second part of the letter, Pablo Picasso adds a performance of Verdi's opera "Aïda" to the schedule, demonstrating the artist's continued keen interest in operatic works more than 30 years after designing sets for the Ballets Russes.

Finally, the only possible conclusion for Picasso's letter and stay with his friends is to attend of course one final bullfight, whose announcement itself seems like the title of a painting: “bullfight with the presence of a black king". We do not know which African dignitary attended the 1957 bullfight, but the painter's 76-year-old interest echoes his fascination with primitive art, which he discovered during his early years in Paris and of which he possessed one of the finest collections.

The composition of this letter, written in several colours, reveals the almost youthful enthusiasm with which Pablo Picasso organised this trip. Underlined passages, crosses in multiple colours, pencil changes, hasty telegraphic writing, chronological back-and-forths – the words race across the page like bulls in the arena. As a true aficionado, the painter ends this graphic bullfight under the red muleta of his signature.