PABLO PICASSO Marie Thérèse considérant son effigie surréaliste sculptée.
Etching, 1933. 268x190 mm; 10x7 1/2 inches, full margins. Edition of 260. Signed in pencil, lower right. Picasso watermark. Printed by Lacourière, Paris. Published by Vollard, Paris. A very good impression.
Marie Thérèse considérant son effigie surréaliste sculptée is one of 100 different etchings from the Vollard Suite, a series Picasso (1881-1977) produced from 1930 to 1937 for Parisian publisher Ambroise Vollard. While over 300 sets were printed, complete suites are scarce, instead the prints from this series now are often found individually.
The suite spans the years of Picasso's passionate, sometimes tumultuous affair with his teenage model and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter. Many of the earlier works in the series portray a sculptor in his studio among his work—alluding to the classical myth of Pygmalion. The later prints become increasingly dark as both his relationship with Marie-Thérèse waned and Europe entered World War II.
Marie-Thérèse became pregnant with Picasso's child in 1934 (their daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso, born September 5, 1935). Her pregnancy marked the end of Picasso's then marriage to the Ballet Russe dancer Olga Koklova and also the beginning of the end of his relationship with his young model (just one year later he would meet Dora Maar— with whom Marie-Thérèse would become embattled over Picasso's affection).
The onset of World War II and the sudden death of the publisher Vollard in a car crash in the south of France in 1939 delayed the distribution of this important suite, certainly one of the most groundbreaking print series ever created by an artist, it was not released until the 1950s. Bloch 187; Geiser 346.
