Seated Faun

The year Picasso turned seventy, the critic and publisher E. Tériade devoted a double issue of the Verve magazine to him. Picasso himself designed the cover of this special 1951 edition, which was entitled ‘Picasso à Vallauris 1949–1951’. To illustrate the pages of the luxurious magazine, Michel Sima held a photo session in the artist’s studio. The full-page reproductions show some of his most recent ceramic pieces. This issue of Verve included texts by Georges Ramié, the owner of the Madoura pottery workshop; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Picasso’s dealer; and the Greek poet Odysseas Elytis.

‘It was four years ago now that Picasso sat at the potter’s wheel for the first time. He was looking for a few hours of fun, but at the wheel he began to see a whole world whose discovery still fascinates him to this day.’