Pablo Picasso (Spanish, b. 1881)
Pan et Faune, 1958
Oil pastel on cream wove paper
9 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.; 18 x 20 3/4 in. framed
Signed and dated upper right, “le 6.10.58. Picasso”
Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Galerie Urban, Paris
Private Collection, North Carolina
Back to Artist Page
This 1958 drawing of a double-flute player and a faun uses oil pastels to depict a jovial performance. The scene is a variation of a common motif Picasso began depicting in the 1920s, in which a sleeping woman is accompanied by a minotaur or faun who watches over her. Picasso’s interest in classical antiquity and Neoclassicism in the 1920s and 1930s was part of a larger trend seeking a “return to order” in the art establishment following the widespread devastation and death of World War I. It’s no wonder Picasso was drawn towards idyllic, fantastical beauty after a period of global chaos, and this drawing demonstrates Picasso’s desire to return to utopian ideals and forms.
