L'Homme au Chapeau (from Du Cubisme, 1947)

Pablo Picasso

This small-scale but fully-developed Cubist composition was etched by Picasso in 1914 or early 1915. Only one 1914/15 impression is known (in the Picasso Museum), and just 3 impressions were printed for Picasso at Louis Fort's studio in 1930. The only full edition is that for the album Du Cubisme in 1947. For this issue the plate was steel-faced, but was still in perfect condition before the facing. 20 proofs were pulled in bistre/red-brown ink, and an edition totaling 455 impressions in black ink. The plate was then cancelled.

"Man in a Hat - L'Homme au Chapeau" is one of a small series of complex highly developed cubist works which Picasso etched in 1913-1915. Many of them, like this, remained virtually unprinted at the period. The build-up of the form through patterns of contrasted parallel shading within the angular counterpoint of the forms underlines what most interested Picasso about cubist work in etching - the ability to use the fine incisive bite of the line to create both surface and texture whilst being at the same time non-descriptive and abstract (i.e. just parallel shading).

Du Cubisme was an album reissuing the seminal 1912 tract defining Cubism written by Gleizes and Metzinger. Besides the Picasso cubist etching above, the album also included prints by Gleizes, Metzinger, Picabia, Duchamp, Laurencin and Villon.