Autoportrait dans un miroir, Cannes 1955

Silver gelatin print, 1955, Original issue on Baryte paper, signed by the photographer in ink (recto) and stamped verso
Printing: Printed by the photographer in 1989
Size: 240 X 333 mms
Ref: Picasso Vu par Villers photographies, P. 10 (Same photo but with Villers next to Picasso)
Note:
Picasso is shown wearing a fancy hat reflected in a mirror.
Andre Villers was a well known photographer who became a good friend of Picasso and took many photographs of him. The alliance culminated, in 1962, in a book which was written by Jacques Prevert and illustrated by Photographs taken by by Villers in collaboration with Picasso (see Cramer 115 - page 284). Picasso’s original cut-outs, Villers photographs and Preverts manuscript were shown at Galwrie Madoura in Cannes and Gaalerie Berggruen in Paris. Using a technique he had started in 1943 Picasso made some cut-outs of heads and silhouettes of men, women and animals. Villers mounted the cut-outs on different photographs - 30 in all - thus varying their effect and quality. The author, Prevert, made a written commentary of his “visual promenade”. The title, “Diurnes”, suggests fugitive beings who live only for a day and Prevert tells of their story from sunrise to sunset. Not all the works illustrated in the book were “photos-decoupages”. Some, such as this one, depicted other scenes without a “decoupage”
Reference: See the work “Bonjour Picasso - The photography of Andre Villers” published by Michael Hoppen Gallery in 1906. On the last page of this work is a companion photograph to ours which shows Villers and Picasso together looking into the mirror and the photographer taking his shot.