Sugar-lift aquatint and hand-biting, on cream wove paper
Sheet: 14 7/8 x 11inc
37.8 x 27.9cm
Signed in blue crayon and annotated in green crayon Bon a Tirer, rare proff impression before the steel facing of the plate (the definitive proof impression apart from the book edition of 276 unsigned examples), inscribed and dated in the stone 26.24.47 II Gongora
 
 
This work comes from Picasso’s illustrated edition of Les Sonnets de Luis de Góngora, a 17th-century Spanish poet whose baroque verses inspired Picasso to explore new forms of portraiture and symbolism. Created in 1948, these works reflect Picasso’s admiration for Góngora’s complexity and rhythm, translating poetic emotion into visual form.