Lot 53 D

In 1933 the Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard suggested to Pablo Picasso that he should work on a series of etchings. This led to 100 different classical motifs in Picasso's Suite Vollard, from 1933 to 1937, when the artist focused on subjects such as "Sculptor and Model" and "Minotaur". Only very few museums have complete suites, one of them being the British Museum in London. The motif of this sheet was taken from the ancient Greek legends that surrounded Theseus. The two characters in this scene are Ariadne, the daughter of Minos and granddaughter of Zeus, and her half-brother Minotaur who had been the result of an amorous adventure between her mother and a bull. Minotaur, half man and half bull, had been banned by his stepfather to live in a labyrinth, but he can been seen here stroking the cheek of sleeping Ariadne. The scene, which is ambiguous between loving playfulness and erotic lust, was not without a certain biographical poignancy. A close look at Ariadne's well-proportioned facial features and the shape of her head reveals a certain similarity with Picasso's lover at the time, Marie-Thérèse Walter. In this depiction of Minotaur Picasso may have been thinking of himself. It was a well-known fact that this virile artist enjoyed watching bullfights and that he also identified with the strength ascribed to a bull.