Cryptocurrency is never far from the headlines these days, and Heather James Fine Art is excited to announce we have joined with Coinbase Commerce, the merchant payment service for Coinbase Global Inc., in offering cryptocurrency adoption for fine art purchases. Today, we offer this early oil on canvas by Picasso for purchase in Bitcoin or ETH. La Communiante Avec Missel, from a rare series during Picasso’s Neo-Classical period, is priced at $1,850,000. It is the first of many artworks the gallery will offer for a direct cryptocurrency sale.
Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. Their platform offers sophisticated payment solutions backed by deep liquidity and cryptocurrency expertise. Coinbase Commerce will continue to offer these kinds of solutions to e-commerce platforms like Heather James to help bring cryptocurrency mainstream. To learn more about Coinbase Commerce, click here.
Heather James is a leader in the e-commerce marketing of important art from a cross-section of periods, movements and genres. From antiquities to blue-chip Impressionist, Modern, Post-War, and cutting-edge Contemporary, the gallery offers the very best European, American, Asian, and Latin art. As we celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary, we are confident that this partnership with Coinbase Commerce will help to reshape the future of fine art commerce. We believe paintings by renowned artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, O’Keeffe, or Picasso are well-matched assets with Bitcoin and soon-to-be deflationary Ethereum. These digital currencies offer a dream-like investment opportunity – a digital transformation brightened by the rewarding experience of owning great art brought home where it belongs.
La Communiante Avec Missel
1919
25 5/8 x 21 1/2 in. (65.21 x 54.61 cm)
oil on canvas
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Claude Picasso
Pace Gallery, New York
James Goodman Gallery, New York (until March 1989)
Fabian Carlsson, London
Private Collection, New York
James Goodman Gallery, New York
Private Collection, acquired from the above in 2003
Exhibition
Paris, Galerie Claude Bernard, Picasso Peintures 1901-1971, 1980, no. 5, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, James Goodman Gallery, Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings by Dubuffet, Léger and Picasso, 1988, no. 14
Literature
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso: from the Ballets to Drama (1917-1926), Barcelona, 1999, no. 373, illustrated p. 128
1988. [NY.88c*]. Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings by Dubuffet, Léger & Picasso (James Goodman Gallery, New York, September – October, 1988). New York. NY.88c*:14
Picasso, Peintures, 1901-1971 (Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, juin, 1980). Paris. PA.80a*:5
An exemplary work from Picasso’s Neo-Classical period, La communiante avec missel belongs to a rare series. Picasso revisited the theme of children receiving communion a few times and in a few styles, from this solemn classic version to the dynamic fragmentation of Cubism. A Neo-Classical example comparable to this piece is in the collection of the Musée Picasso in Paris.
While this time period after World War I saw many artists looking to tradition, a return to order as a reaction against the destruction of war, Picasso’s Neo-classicism was not so much a refuge, but a vehicle by which he could explore new themes and ideas. In La communiante avec missel, we see certain hallmarks of Picasso: the visual weight that the girl carries and the statuesque features of her face. These elements are softened by the curved lines the artist has used for her body and dress. In Picasso’s hands, the painting is a meditation of youth and religion marking the rites of passage.
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