Provenance

Estate of the artist

Marina Picasso, the artist’s granddaughter

Picasso’s ‘Tête de Taureau (Minotaure)’ is an emblematic piece from 1958. Its status is confirmed by the prominence Picasso gave it in the drawing room of La Californie, his 1920s villa in Cannes where he long displayed it against a wall, resting on the back of a couch. Photographs show that beneath it, lying on the couch, he placed an amphora, given to him by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, France’s celebrity oceanologist. Around ‘Tête de Taureau’ were placed many paintings, including ‘Intérieur avec Femme dans un Rocking-Chair’ and ‘Nature Morte au Compotier’, both from 1956, and a bullfight painting by Claude Picasso, dedicated “Pour Mon Papa Cheri Claude”. A potent symbol of his Spanish identity, the cardboard bull’s head became an integral part of his domestic interior. Measuring 82.8cm x 76.2cm/32.6 x 28.6 in, it was certainly made by Picasso as a maquette for 'Bull', his construction in plywood and other materials, also created in 1958. The shape of the cardboard cut-out follows the still-visible outline of Picasso’s black crayon drawing of a bull’s head. He kept both the maquette and the wooden sculpture for the rest of his life. The cut-out was inherited by his grand-daughter Marina, while in 1983, marking the tenth anniversary of Picasso’s death, his widow Jaqueline donated the wooden sculpture to New York MoMA. Picasso’s ‘Bull’ had previously remained an intimate secret, never exhibited, never published. William Rubin, who had known Picasso well and was then Director of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, was quoted in one of the museum’s press releases, dated October 11, 1983, declaring, “I was amazed when I saw this piece among the objects in Jaqueline’s share of the estate, and I thought it absolutely extraordinary.”