Aragon / Pablo Picasso - Shakespeare - 1965

Louis Aragon / Pablo Picasso — Shakespeare: Hamlet et Nous. Paris: Éditions Cercle d’Art, 1965.
Large-format Picasso illustrated publication issued for the Shakespeare quadricentennial and published by the celebrated Parisian house Éditions Cercle d’Art. The work combines Louis Aragon’s text Shakespeare, Hamlet et nous with Picasso imagery and graphic interventions in one of the most visually distinctive Picasso-related publications of the 1960s.
The present example belongs to the regular numbered edition, this being copy no. 639 from the edition of 2,000 numbered copies. Unlike the deluxe issue — limited to 150 copies on Vélin d’Arches and accompanied by an original signed Picasso lithograph — this is the standard collector’s edition issued without the additional signed lithograph.
The volume is bound in the original publisher’s illustrated boards featuring Picasso’s expressive handwritten cover design incorporating the names “Shakespeare,” “Aragon,” and “Picasso” in bold gestural calligraphy. Internally, the publication contains Aragon’s celebrated essay reflecting on Shakespeare, Hamlet, tragedy, poetry, and modern intellectual life, accompanied by Picasso imagery reproduced within the sophisticated graphic language associated with Cercle d’Art and the Mourlot environment.
A preliminary text entitled Murmure emphasizes the artistic and philosophical dialogue between Aragon and Picasso and situates the publication within the broader context of postwar French modernism. The typography and overall design reflect the refined production standards for which Cercle d’Art became internationally known during the Picasso years.
Published in Paris in 1965, the work was produced by:
Publisher: Éditions Cercle d’Art, Paris
Typography, text & binding: Imprimerie Union, Paris
Printer of illustrations: Mourlot (lithography); Imprimerie Moderne du Lion (Fernand Chenot) for reproductions
Paper: Vélin d’Arches
Format: 48.5 × 33.5 cm (grand in-folio)
The deluxe edition with the original lithograph is referenced in the major Picasso catalogues raisonnés under:
Cramer 131
Reuße 858
Mourlot 405
Bloch 1197
According to Miguel Orozco’s Picasso: 70 Years of Book Illustration, Picasso created the original lithographic portrait of Shakespeare specifically for the deluxe edition in February 1965. The signed lithograph was printed separately in 150 impressions for the luxury issue, while the standard edition of 2,000 copies — including the present example — was issued without the original lithograph but retained the monumental format and complete textual and visual presentation of the work.
An important and highly decorative Picasso-associated publication linking two major twentieth-century cultural figures — Louis Aragon and Pablo Picasso — in a refined Shakespeare tribute produced at the height of the postwar French illustrated book tradition.