Curt Valentin Gallery, Inc., New York
Acquired from the above on February 23, 1952

New Canaan, Silvermine Guild Arts Center, July 8, 1956
Paris, Petit Palais, Hommage à Pablo Picasso, Nov. 1966- Feb. 1967, no. 296, illustration of another example

John Richardson, Picasso:  An American Tribute, New York, 1962, no. 18, illustration of another example
Roland Penrose, The Sculpture of Picasso, New York, 1967, illustration of another example p. 127
Robert Rosenblum, The Sculpture of Picasso, Pace Gallery, New York, 1982, no. 21, illustration of another example p. 29
Werner Spies, Pablo Picasso: das Plastiche Werk, Berlin, 1983, no. 403 II, illustration of another example, pp. 229 and 352
Werner Spies, Picasso Sculpteur, Catalogue raisonné des sculptures, Paris, 2000, no. 403 II, illustration of another example p. 373

While Picasso was working in the Antibes Museum (Palais Grimaldi), he adopted a small owl with an injured leg that had been found hiding in a corner. Françoise Gilot and Picasso tamed the bird and brought it back with them to Paris, keeping it in the kitchen of the studio on the rue des Grands Augustins, where they also kept pigeons, canaries, and turtle doves.  Françoise describes Picasso’s reactions to the owl in her memoirs:  “Every time the owl snorted at Picasso he would shout, “Cochon, Merde,” and a few other obscenities, just to show that he was even worse-mannered than him, but Picasso’s fingers, though small, were tough and the owl didn’t hurt him. Finally the owl would let him scratch his head and gradually came to perch on his finger instead of biting it, but even so, he still looked very unhappy” (Francoise Gilot, My Life with Picasso, New York, 1964).  

The present💃 work was executed in 1950.  The owl appeared in a number of paintings (see Zervos, nos. 400, 401, 403, 404, 475-477, 573-575) and at least two lithographs,👍 as well as a number of ceramics.

Fig. 1 Picasso on the staircase of his Paris studio in 1952, La Chouette is visible in the background (photographꦫ by Denise Colomb)

Fig. 2  Picasso with his adopted owl, circa 1948.