Bearded man crowned with Vine Leaves, 1962

(Bearded Man Crowned with Vine Leaves)
Mougins, March 1962

Original linocut printed in four colours (maroon on beige, brown, light brown and black) from a single block on Arches watermarked paper

Edition of 50 (plus approximately 20 artist’s proofs)

Frame: 89 x 79 cm
Sheet: 61.6 × 43.8 cm

Signed in pencil by the artist

A powerful expression of Picasso’s late mythological imagination, this linocut belongs to the radical Mougins period, a time when the artist reinvented printmaking and reasserted his dialogue with antiquity, identity and creative vitality.The Work
The bearded figure confronts the viewer directly, crowned with vine leaves, an unmistakable reference to Dionysian symbolism. The frontal composition is monumental and hieratic, recalling both classical busts and Iberian sculpture. The face, divided into bold planar forms, carries a tension between severity and vitality, age and potency.

The vine leaves are not merely decorative. They invoke fertility, intoxication, theatricality and the ecstatic force of creation. Throughout his career, Picasso repeatedly associated himself with mythic archetypes, most famously the Minotaur and here the crowned figure becomes another embodiment of the artist as timeless creator.

The reduction linocut technique intensifies the work’s authority. Carved from a single block in successive stages, each colour layer required irreversible decisions. The result is both painterly and graphic, a synthesis of spontaneity and control.


Artistic Context: Picasso in Mougins
Created shortly after Picasso’s move to Mougins in 1961, this work belongs to one of the most prolific and audacious periods of his life. Living with Jacqueline Roque, whom he married that same year, Picasso entered a phase of extraordinary productivity. Far from retreating into reflection, he accelerated.

Between 1939 and 1968, Picasso produced only around 150 linocuts in total, a surprisingly small number within his vast oeuvre. The early 1960s examples are widely considered among the most significant, marking his full embrace of the reduction linocut process.

During this period he explored recurring themes:
The painter and his model
Mythological archetypes
Youth and age
Classical revival through modern distortion

Companion works such as Jeune Homme Couronné de Feuillage (1962) form a conceptual pairing, juxtaposing youthful vitality with mature authority, a meditation on time and identity.

At the same time, Picasso was creating late paintings of musketeers and studio scenes, increasingly self-mythologising his role within art history.


Cultural Resonance
The early 1960s were defined by global political change and the rise of a new artistic generation. While younger artists rejected tradition, Picasso absorbed and reinterpreted centuries of visual language with unapologetic confidence.

Rather than competing with emerging movements, he reaffirmed his own mythology, asserting that modernity could coexist with antiquity.


Technical Significance
This linocut was printed from a single block using the reduction method, a process Picasso helped refine in collaboration with master printer Arnéra in Vallauris. Each successive carving removed material permanently, meaning the artist worked forward without the possibility of correction.

The bold chromatic layering demonstrates how Picasso elevated linoleum, traditionally considered a modest medium, into a vehicle for painterly depth and sculptural presence.


Collector’s Insight
With an edition of only 50, and belonging to the most important phase of Picasso’s linocut production, this work holds strong art-historical standing. Examples from this period are held in major public collections including:
Musee Picasso
Museum of Modern Art
British Museum

The Mougins linocuts are increasingly recognised as some of the most psychologically direct and technically innovative prints of Picasso’s late career. Their relative scarcity within his broader output further strengthens their long-term significance.


Why I Chose This Work
I was drawn to this piece because of its authority. It captures Picasso at a moment of total confidence, mythic, self-aware, and unafraid of bold graphic force. It feels both ancient and modern at once, which is precisely what makes it enduring.


References
Bloch 1308
Baer 1307
Wofsy L:128
Orozco 399

Provenance includes Christie’s, New York, April 27, 2016, lot 68.