Descripción
Original poster, catalogued as such by Fernand Mourlot. Picasso approved the use of one of the 32 etchings he made to illustrate Aime Césaire’s book “Corps Perdu”, The Black Poet of Martinique, and it was used on the cover. Although Picasso did not make the etching for use as a poster, it still qualifies as an original work according to the same criteria used to classify the poster for “Le Chant des Morts” as original.
Neither this poster nor its motif have been reproduced on other posters.
The etching reproduced on the poster, considered a masterpiece by Abraham Horodish, was made using the etching and drypoint technique, and corresponds to a portrait of Aimé Césaire. According to the aforementioned author, no reproduction can do justice to the original due to the impossibility of faithfully capturing its charm and the delicacy of the features drawn in black.
The drawing is an impressive head in profile. Four copies of the book were made on Japanese imperial paper, two or three of which were numbered and signed by Picasso. A similar number of prints were made for an edition of thirty copies of the book published by Editions Fragance in 1950. Sebastian and Herma Goeppert, and Patrick Crammer in their catalogue raisonné, mention this superb etching and drypoint of the head of a black man as the ‘laureate’ of blackness. Picasso succeeded in giving the character in this print traits of great personality. Noteworthy are the intelligent gleam of the eye, the elegance of the neck and the sensuality of the mouth. Pierre Daix relates that at the Congress of Intellectuals for Peace held in Wroclaw, the black poet Aimé Césaire was present, along with Picasso and Paul Eluard, and the poet fascinated the children, who had never seen a black man before.
