PICASSO (Pablo) - DELGADO Y GÁLVEZ (José). La... Lot 125

PICASSO (Pablo) - DELGADO Y GÁLVEZ (José). La Tauromaquia o arte de torear. Obra utilisima para los toreros de profesion, para los aficionados y para toda clase de sujetos que gusten de toros por José Delgado alias Pepe Illo. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1959. - Oblong folio, 350 x 500: (2 blank ff.), 142 pp. (3 last blank ff.), 26 plates, illustrated cover. In sheets, parchment-covered cardboard folder and case with yellow cloth boards and parchment edges. Cramer, no. 100. Beautiful and highly sought-after edition of the famous and monumental treatise on bullfighting by 18th-century Spanish bullfighter José Delgado y Gálvez (1754-1801), known as Pepe Illo or Hillo, illustrated with a drypoint on the cover and 26 original, unsigned out-of-text sugar aquatints by Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973). "This book had been commissioned by Gustavo Gili père in 1927 for his bibliophile collection "Ediciones de la Cometa" (...) Picasso had done some engravings (...); Henry de Montherlant wrote a preface; then the wars, in Spain and elsewhere, put an end to the project. Then, in 1956, Gustavo Gili fils reminded Picasso of the project. In the spring of 1957, in Cannes, a few days after the Easter bullfight he had attended in Arles, Picasso drew this light-and-shadow shorthand of a bullfight in copper, creating a modern counterpart to Goya's "La Tauromaquia" (1815). The 26 aquatints accompany the text of what was, in 1796, the first manual for bullfighters and "aficionados"; its author, the famous bullfighter Pepe Illo" (Cramer). This edition was printed in an edition of 263 numbered copies on Guarro vellum, watermarked with a bull's head motif designed by Picasso. This is one of 200 numbered from 31 to 250, and does not bear the artist's signature, but as Cramer explains: "The "achever d'imprimer" mistakenly states that all copies are signed in pencil by the artist, whereas a certain number are not. Copy complete with the two brochures announcing the publication of the work, one containing reproductions of the 26 aquatints, the second, entitled La Cometa, with an introductory text in Spanish. A perfectly preserved copy, in spite of a few rare foxing marks, as is almost always the case, notably on the false title. Some foxing to the plate entitled La Cometa.