Pablo Picasso (Spain/France, 1881-1973), CORRIDA SUR FOND NOIR, 1953 (A.R. 198), earthenware ceramic platter, partially engraved, with colored engobe and glaze, depicting a bullfighting scene. Date 25-9-53 engraved to border. From the edition of 500. Madoura Plein Feu and Edition Picasso stamps on the underside. 15 1/2″ W x 12 1/2″D x 1 1/2″H (39 cm x 32 cm x 4 cm ).

PROVENANCE: The collection of the late Norman and Betty Luboff, acquired in Vallauris in the 1950s. Norman Luboff (1917-1987) was an internationally known American composer, music arranger and conductor, best known for his work with the Norman Luboff Choir. He was also a passionate collector of Picasso ceramics. Norman and Betty divorced in the mid 1960s, and Norman eventually remarried Gunilla Luboff and moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His Picasso ceramics collection was exhibited at the Wills N. Hackney Library at the Atlantic Christian University in Chapel Hill between 1985 and 1987, when Luboff passed away. Copies of an undated Chapel Hill Newsletter article about Luboff and the exhibit, picturing this item along with his Fish and Femme Lamp, are available to the winning bidder of this lot. (Note: the article incorrectly states that Gunilla was Norman’s wife when the ceramics were purchased; he was actually married to Betty at the time). The collection has descended in the Luboff family to the present consignor.

CONDITION: Three small, very narrow rim flakes to underside of rim, largest 1/4″L, neither visible from front side.