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View source →Cavalier sur sa Monture
Pablo Picasso, about 1951
Technical Details
Medium
Tin-glazed earthenware painted in black and brown with scratched detail
Dimensions
41.6 × 31.5 × 26.3 cm
Style
Ceramic Modernism
Decade
1950s
About This Work
This unique pitcher converts a vessel into a mounted figure through painted legs, a mask-like animal body, looped handles, and a cup-shaped neck. Black, brown, and scratched decoration makes the ceramic surface work as both image and structure. The rider is not modeled as a separate sculpture; instead, Picasso lets the container’s shape generate the subject. The work’s humor and inventiveness show how his ceramics could make a functional object appear animated, theatrical, and unexpectedly monumental.
The V&A identifies Cavalier sur sa Monture as a unique pitcher made at Madoura Pottery about 1951 and notes Picasso’s extended engagement with Vallauris ceramics after his first visit in 1946. The museum’s gallery label emphasizes that his ceramic practice challenged the old separation between art and craft. That broader context is essential: the work is not a minor diversion from painting but a direct experiment in how clay, decoration, and useful form could create a new kind of sculpture.
Current Location
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →Collection record status
Live institutional record fetched.
Source-linked entry contains a provenance or acquisition statement; full ownership-chain claims remain limited to the cited institution.
Image access: External source link or fallback.
Valuation & Provenance
2026 Estimated Value
Public collection / market value not asserted
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
Keywords
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