Lot 233 Dα

As Bernd Rau explains in his catalogue of Pablo Picasso's lithographs, the six lithographs of Mourlot 306 to 311 - each featuring two to three different states - are to be seen as a cohesive group. All of them depict Jacqueline Roque, who had been Picasso's partner since September of 1954: in monochrome, floral-printed or chequered blouses, here reading, there with her hair up, but always seen in profile and facing to the right.
Picasso created the first states of each print on five zinc plates on 16, 17, 18 and 27 December 1957. Work on the further states continued over the course of a year, until he finally concluded all of them on 27 December 1958. Seen collectively, the lithographs display an extraordinary diversity in terms of expression and in the choice of the media used: brush, chalk, needle, scraper and sandpaper were utilised to achieve an independent artistic version corresponding to the specific qualities of the medium. The range of expression extends from the delicately nuanced, chalky grey tones of the present sheet “Buste au corsage à carreaux” to the sharp lines scratched out of the black ground with a needle in the “Buste de profil” (Mourlot 306, 3rd state) (regarding this, see Bernd Rau, Werkverzeichnis, in: Pablo Picasso: Die Lithographien, exhib. cat. Kunsthalle Bremen i.a., Stuttgart 1988, nos. 660-676, pp. 296-299).