Literature: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts: “Picasso's Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculpture. A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885–1973. The Sixties I - 1960–1963”, San Francisco 2021, reproduced p. 288. Provenance: Carl Nesjar, Norway. A gift from the artist. Provenance: Private collection, New York. Provenance: Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper, Sotheby's, London 20 June 2007, cat. no. 228.

This work presents the eventual terminus of Picasso's monumental campaign with Edouard Manet's “Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe” (1863), the spectre of which had haunted his entuire adult career. Two bearded men, one sporting a cap with trailing hat bands, immediately recognizable from manet's work, bear down on two female victims. Transforming a rural bohemian picnic into a savage and camal scene, this picture stands as Picasso's attempt finally to exorcize the ghost of Manet from his oeuvre.

The present work is dedicated to Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, who met Picasso in 1957 and introduced him to the technique of casting sculpture in concrete. In 1962, the year the present work was executed, they collaborated on Picasso's first monumental public sculpture in America, “Tête”, in Chicago's Civic Center.