Etching and drypoint, 1932. 300x368 mm; 11 7/8x14 1/2 inches, full margins. Edition of 260. Signed in pencil, lower right. Vollard watermark. Printed by Lacourière, Paris. Published by Vollard, Paris. A very good impression with strong contrasts and richly-inked burr.
This is one of 100 Neo-Classical style subjects Picasso etched for the now famous Suite Vollard, named for the Parisian art dealer/publisher who commissioned the set, Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939). More than 300 sets were created, but many were broken up and the prints sold separately. Picasso's work on the seires spanned several years during the early 1930s, while Lacourière printed the etchings into the late 1930s, an extraordinary feat given the 30,000-plus impressions he pulled from Picasso's plates. Vollard's untimely death in 1939 and the onset of World War II delayed the release of the suites and it was not until the early 1950s that many started appearing on the art market.
The suite begins with etchings exploring the theme of the sculptor's studio, including representations of Picasso's then mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter. These scenes lead to images of a minotaur joining in scenes of bacchic excess, then compositions showing the beast transformed from a gentle lover and bon vivant into a rapist and devourer of women, reflecting the artist's turbulent relationships with Marie-Thérèse and his wife Olga. In the final subjects, the minotaur becomes pathetic, blind and impotent, he wanders by night, led by a little girl with the features of Marie-Thérèse. Picasso also etched three separate portraits of Vollard to accompany the suite. Bloch 144; Geiser 258.
