Picasso often included a glass of absinthe in his still lifes. From his beginnings, and especially at the height of his Cubist period, from 1907 to 1914, the artist was highly influenced by advertising material that he saw in the Parisian bars and cafés he frequented. A reproduction of the famous painting by Charles Maire for Pernod Fils’ absinthe hung in his studio, and appears in several of his most famous Cubist paintings and collages.
Absinthe – because of its beautiful greeny colour, its air of danger and seduction, and above all its psychoactive properties, had been idealised and portrayed in art and writing by countless arists, playwrights and authors : the Surrealist Alfred Jarry, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe, Picasso, Hemingway and many others. They were all famous, not only for their work, but also for their often outrageously bohemian way of life.
In the 20th century, interpreted prints resulted from a close collaboration between an artist and a master engraver or lithographer. The first prints after Picasso were stencils by Pouyard (1920-21), then came the delicate aquatints produced by Jacques Villon, the splendid engravings by Roger Lacourière, then those by the Crommelynck brothers, as well as the lithographs by Henri Deschamps for Mourlot. In addition, in the 1950s, Picasso gave many drawings which were printed and whose sale supported peace movements and the Communist press.
Picasso was friend with the famous playwright, Fernand Crommelynck. In 1966 he illustrated his 1920 play Le Cocu Magnifique (The Magnificent Cuckold) using twelve copper plates. Fernand had three sons, Aldo, Piero and Milan.
From 1948 to 1955, Aldo and Piero carried out their apprenticeship in Roger Lacourière’s intaglio studio, where Picasso regularly worked. Picasso noticed them there.
In 1959, Aldo and Piero opened a printmaking studio in Rue de Gergovie in Paris, which welcomed many of the major artists of the time such as André Masson, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, Tal Coat, Zao Wou-ki, Hans Hartung and Joan Miró. Milan, the elder brother, would join them about ten years later.
In 1963, Aldo and Piero set up with a printing press in an old bakery in Mougins. Picasso wanted to have a printing studio close to his home in Notre-Dame-de-Vie. Picasso threw the Crommelynck brothers into the limelight. The painter and master printmakers collaborated for nearly twenty years, in Paris first then Mougins. Together they produced more than 700 prints, including the « 60 », « 156 » and « 347 » series, in 1968.
Between 1955 and 1966, the Crommelyncks had to produced eight interpreted prints after original works by Picasso : Family of Saltimbanques (1955), Still Life with Lemon and Red Pitcher (1955), Still Life with Fruit (1955), Bacchanal (1957), The Faun (1958), The Window of Studio ‘La Californie’ (1959), Still Life with a Glass of Absinthe (1965) and Bathsheba (1966).
Concerned with satisfying the Master by remaining true to his works, and taking into account the technical complexity of the work, the Crommelyncks called upon the intaglio master, Jean Pennquin, to carry out the work. He had already worked with Picasso at Roger Lacourière’s at the end of the 1930s.
Jean Pennequin had met Fequet and Baudier before the war through Roger Lacourière. They worked together on numerous projects, and their respective studios were close to each other. In 1984, Jean Pennequin gave part of his collection to Fequet and Baudier, including all the artist proofs that Crommelynck had reserved for him during their many years of collaboration.