Lump: The Dog who ate a Picasso

Hardback

Main Details

Title Lump: The Dog who ate a Picasso
Authors and Contributors      By (author) David Douglas Duncan
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:100
Dimensions(mm): Height 230,Width 170
Category/GenreIndividual artists and art monographs
True Stories
Dogs as pets
ISBN/Barcode 9780500512951
ClassificationsDewey:636.75380929
Audience
General
Illustrations 89 Halftones, duotone; 19 Illustrations, color

Publishing Details

Publisher Thames & Hudson Ltd
Imprint Thames & Hudson Ltd
Publication Date 24 April 2006
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

One spring morning in 1957, veteran photojournalist David Douglas Duncan paid a visit to his friend and frequent photographic subject Pablo Picasso, at the artist's home near Cannes. As a co-pilot alongside Duncan in his Mercedes Gullwing 300 SL was the photographer's pet dachsund, Lump. Photographer and dog were close companions, but Duncan's nomadic lifestyle and his other dog - a giant jealous Afghan hound who had tormented Lump - made their life in Rome difficult. When they arrived at Picasso's Villa La Californie that historic day, Lump decided that he had found paradise on earth, and that he would move in with Picasso, whether the artist welcomed him or not. This is the background for a totally original book that offers an uncommonly sensitive portrait of Picasso. Lump was immortalized in a Picasso portrait painted on a plate the day they met, but that was just the beginning. In a suite of forty-five paintings reinterpreting Velasquez's masterpiece 'Las Meninas', Picasso replaced the impassive hound in the foreground with jaunty renderings of Lump. Today, as a gift from the artist to his hometown as a youth, all of those historic canvases are now the centerpiece exhibition in the Picasso Museum of Barcelona. Fourteen of the paintings are reproduced here in full colour, juxtaposed with Duncan's dramatic and intimate black-and-white photographs of Picasso and Lump, bringing full circle the odyssey of a lucky dachshund who found his way to becoming a furry, super-stretched icon of modern art.

Author Biography

David Douglas Duncan is a renowned photographer and photojournalist. A close friend of Picasso, he has published numerous collections featuring the artist, including Goodbye Picasso, The Private World of Pablo Picasso, Picasso's Picassos, Viva Picasso and Picasso and Jacqueline.

Reviews

'Utterly original' - Tatler 'Delightful' - The Art Newspaper 'A fascinating private study of Picasso at home' - State of Art 'The book capture[s] the joyful, informal atmosphere of the Picasso villa and the painter's adoration of the little dachshund' - Independent 'Goes beyond mere entertainment, and offers an insight into a rarely seen world' - Black & White Photography