Firstly this product was not authorised by the artist himself. The Picasso estate may have allowed the reproduction to be made but the artist never gave his consent. I suppose it may be that they are marketing a little of the artist's mystique. Well, Picasso is dead, you may say-he could not give his consent-this precisely is my point. He is buried at Vauvenargues and has been these nearly 40 years.
Notice that I call this a reproduction, not a print. Picasso actually made prints throughout his career and the originals cost an arm and a leg as they say. Well more than an arm and a leg, you are talking in tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds for linocuts cut by the artist, or etchings or engravings where the design was incised or drawn onto the plate by the artist. And another thing: the edition numbers on Picasso originals reflect the fact that they were made with the traditional techniques of the artists' print-in other words by hand. Nothing like it happened here and the vendors can rely on the fact that there doesn't seem to be a legal definition of the word "print". From the point of view of artist printmakers a print would require considerable input from the artist whilst being printed by himself or with close supervision of experienced craftsmen.
This print is produced on reasonable quality French paper and I am sure that the advertiser can be confident that the printing inks are as good as they say they are. But personally I would not want to buy this item because of the factors listed above. Authorisation from the original model is neither here nor there. Numbered certificates of authenticity are just trappings. What is not stated here is if the 595 copies represent the whole number of "prints" produced. Are there another 595 available say in France and another 595 available in the USA-I have no idea. This form of marketing has been known in the promotion of teddy-bears.
To me this is a high quality reproduction of a drawing but not a print. Obviously the sellers disagree but I would say that if you want to buy an original work you can get a print or a painting original from a living artist for less than you are being charged here. But some living artists also sell reproductions to make money. When next you go into a cafe or art gallery and perhaps see a "print" by an artist and it is signed in pencil with the number 325/550 or such like, please be advised that what you are seeing is possibly a reproduction. They can call it a print if they like . To me the original work was the watercolour which was reproduced. Artists' prints tend to have smaller edition sizes rather than larger as a rough rule of thumb . If you want to buy a print I would advise that you find out about the techniques used .I would be astonished if this image of Ms David had any significant resale value or gained value as an investment. Caveat emptor as they say.
There is a typo? in the item's description. Picasso lived at Vallauris not Vallouris.
For further info on printing and editions take a look :here
UPDATE:An example of this reproduction was offered at Anderson& Garland on August 09,2016. as lot 16. It did not sell.
For further info on printing and editions take a look :here
UPDATE:An example of this reproduction was offered at Anderson& Garland on August 09,2016. as lot 16. It did not sell.
