Rare letter from Pablo PICASSO busy creating Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Pablo Picasso (1881.1973)

Signed autograph letter.

A page in-8° in brown ink.

Paris. June 22, 1907.

Busy with the creation of one of his masterpieces, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon , the young Picasso apologizes for not being able to receive his correspondent at the Bateau-Lavoir.

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" Paris. June 22, 1907. Sir, please excuse me, I cannot be at home on Monday. I will be [sic] Tuesday but if you prefer another day please let me know. I salute you. Picasso. »

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Very rare and important letter from the beginning of the 20th ^century by Picasso, in that it is part of the exact temporality of the creation of one of his major works, a true artistic revolution and tipping point in history of modern art: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon , inaugural spearhead of the Cubist movement.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon  was born in July 1907, after 9 months of relentless artistic reflection, intense preparatory work and multiple sketches. Established since 1904 at the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, Picasso, aged 25, began producing his work during the winter of 1906.

In the same month of June 1907, Picasso visited the Trocadéro ethnography museum for the first time, which then contained a vast collection of objects from the colonies. This visit then constituted a determining influence on Picasso regarding the completion of his painting.

On the advice of André Breton, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was acquired by Jacques Doucet in 1924 for the sum of 25,000 francs. Resold in 1937 by the widow of Jacques Doucet to the Seligmann gallery (for 150,000 francs), the work was finally acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) in 1939 where it has been kept since then.

Picasso's letters from the first decade of the 20th ^century are extremely rare.