LUSHLY ILLUSTRATED FIRST EDITION OF KOCHNO'S LE BALLET, WITH AN ORIGINAL FOUR-COLOR LITHOGRAPH BY PICASSO
(PICASSO, Pablo) KOCHNO, Boris and LUZ, Maria. Le Ballet. France: Arts du Monde, Hachette, (1954). Folio (9-1/2 by 12-1/2 inches), original pictorial red cloth, beveled edges, original printed acetate dust jacket.
First edition of this history of ballet, with an original four-color lithographic frontispiece signed in the plate by Pablo Picasso and hundreds of additional illustrations, including over a dozen tipped-in color plates by modern artists, in original publisher's cloth featuring a design by Henri Matisse.
For the frontispiece of this lavishly illustrated volume, "Picasso made a lithograph at Vallaruis in March 1954. It represents, in several colors, the figure of a woman dancing; she seems, at once, both abstract and corporal. In the book, Kochno traces the history of ballet from the masquerades at 15th-century courts to the modern ballets of the first half of the 20th century… The front of the red cloth cover is stamped in white with a drawing after Matisse of a ballerina in tutu" (Picasso: The Illustrated Books, 180). The original Picasso lithograph is rarely present. The book boasts hundreds of in-text illustrations and half-tones, as well as numerous tipped-in color plates of costumes and set designs by artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Bakst, Braque, Miró, Laurencin and Picasso. With scarce original printed acetate dust jacket. Text in French.
A few small chips to acetate, rarely present. A lovely, about-fine copy.