Francois Gilot

With a vast inventory of beautiful furniture at 1stDibs, we’ve got just the francois gilot you’re looking for. A francois gilot — often made from paper — can elevate any home. Whether you’re looking for an older or newer francois gilot, there are earlier versions available from the 20th Century and newer variations made as recently as the 20th Century. When you’re browsing for the right francois gilot, those designed in Mid-Century Modern styles are of considerable interest. You’ll likely find more than one francois gilot that is appealing in its simplicity, but Françoise Gilot produced versions that are worth a look.

Prices for a francois gilot can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — at 1stDibs, they begin at $600 and can go as high as $19,491, while the average can fetch as much as $1,040.

Françoise Gilot studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and then, encouraged by her father, studied international law, though she secretly also took art lessons at the same time. 

In 1943, during her first exhibition in Paris, Gilot (then 21) met Pablo Picasso (who was 61) for the first time. In 1946, Gilot started a 10-year relationship with him and had two of his children, Claude and Paloma.

As a result of her relationship with Picasso, Gilot became both a witness and a participant in one of the last great periods of the modern art movement in Europe. Their circle included poets, philosophers, writers, and many of the legends of the art world, such as Braque, Chagall, Cocteau and Matisse. 

In 1953, Gilot left Picasso and the home they shared in Vallauris and moved back to Paris. 

"Lithographs are printed from stones and each stone is an echo of my artistic voice," said Gilot. "Many artists use their art as a personal catharsis. I have never done that. I am more intellectual. Each artistic process — oils, lithographs, monotypes — allows me a different freedom and suits a different mood." 

While Gilot did her first lithograph in 1950 at the Mourlot Atelier, the same studio used by Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró and Jean Dubuffet, it was in the 1970s that she really began to experiment with the process. 

"In the beginning, I turned to lithography because I wanted to show off my technical skills. Now I am more interested in color," said Gilot. "I also thought that lithographs would make my works more accessible to young collectors."

Gilot’s work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, the Musée Picasso and other institutions.

Find original Françoise Gilot prints, watercolor paintings and other art on 1stDibs. 

(Biography provided by Lions Gallery)

Decorating with fine art prints — whether they’re figurative prints, abstract prints or another variety — has always been a practical way of bringing a space to life as well as bringing works by an artist you love into your home.

Pursued in the 1960s and ’70s, largely by Pop artists drawn to its associations with mass production, advertising, packaging and seriality, as well as those challenging the primacy of the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke, printmaking was embraced in the 1980s by painters and conceptual artists ranging from David Salle and Elizabeth Murray to Adrian Piper and Sherrie Levine.

Printmaking is the transfer of an image from one surface to another. An artist takes a material like stone, metal, wood or wax, carves, incises, draws or otherwise marks it with an image, inks or paints it and then transfers the image to a piece of paper or other material.

Fine art prints are frequently confused with their more commercial counterparts. After all, our closest connection to the printed image is through mass-produced newspapers, magazines and books, and many people don’t realize that even though prints are editions, they start with an original image created by an artist with the intent of reproducing it in a small batch. Fine art prints are created in strictly limited editions — 20 or 30 or maybe 50 — and are always based on an image created specifically to be made into an edition.

Many people think of revered Dutch artist Rembrandt as a painter but may not know that he was a printmaker as well. His prints have been preserved in time along with the work of other celebrated printmakers such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. These fine art prints are still highly sought after by collectors.

“It’s another tool in the artist’s toolbox, just like painting or sculpture or anything else that an artist uses in the service of mark making or expressing him- or herself,” says International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) vice president Betsy Senior, of New York’s Betsy Senior Fine Art, Inc.

Because artist’s editions tend to be more affordable and available than his or her unique works, they’re more accessible and can be a great opportunity to bring a variety of colors, textures and shapes into a space.

For tight corners, select small fine art prints as opposed to the oversized bold piece you’ll hang as a focal point in the dining area. But be careful not to choose something that is too big for your space. And feel free to lean into it if need be — not every work needs picture-hanging hooks. Leaning a larger fine art print against the wall behind a bookcase can add a stylish installation-type dynamic to your living room. (Read more about how to arrange wall art here.)

Find fine art prints for sale on 1stDibs today.