This original lithograph, La Tasse et la Pomme, 21.4.1947
(The cup and the apple) was created April 21, 1947 and so dated in the lithographic stone.   Picasso created a number of still life arrangements in the spring of 1947 in lithography.

On May 15, 1947 Picasso's child with Françoise, Claude, was born.  In August Picasso visits the Madoura pottery workshop in Vallauris where he begins to make some 2,000 ceramic pieces over the next year.

Also during the fall Picasso begins working on his play Les quatre petites filles which he finishes August 13, 1948.

This is one of 13 images created for the book "Dans a'Atelier de Picasso" (In the workshop of Picasso).  Three of the 13 images are displayed in this Saper Galleries exhibition.

This particular example is from the collection of Marina Picasso, the artist's grand daughter and is one of four trial proofs printed before the limited edition of 50.

The text for the book was written by Jaime Sabartes and published by Fernand Mourlot in 1957. 

Mourlot was the famed printer at whose studio Picasso spent much time learning and experimenting with the lithographic medium since 1945.  In the next quarter century Picasso had created more than 800 lithographic images. 

Norton Simon purchased more than 220 of Mourlot's Picasso lithographs in 1977.

In this unusual medium, Picasso created a pen and wash drawing that was transferred to a lithographic stone from which the edition was then printed.