Rago Auctions

Born and raised in Spain, Pablo Picasso is one of the most celebrated modern painters and sculptors in the world. In addition to co-founding the Cubist movement and inventing constructed sculpture, he also single-handedly revived the 800-year-old ceramics industry in Vallauris, France, leaving an indelible mark on 20th-century ceramics in his wake. While vacationing in Golfe-Juan in 1946, he decided to attend the annual pottery exhibition in nearby Vallauris where he was quickly drawn to the Madoura pottery stall. The owners, Suzanne and Georges Ramié, welcomed him to their workshop and he promptly modeled two works in clay. A welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of Paris, Picasso returned to Vallauris a year later and was given a workshop at Madoura, thus beginning a partnership that would last nearly twenty-five years.

Liberated from the confines of a flat surface, Picasso was free to explore painting and sculpture simultaneously. With the guidance of Suzanne Ramié, he worked alongside master potters and then pinching, altering, decorating, and/or reshaping unfired pieces as he saw fit. He designed over 633 originals which were then copied by Madoura artisans in editions of 25 to 500. Encompassing many of Picasso’s favorite subjects—women, faces, bullfights, and nature—his ceramics are more accessible to collectors, yet still possess all the qualities that characterize his most famous works.