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Pablo Picasso
1881-1973
Femme au Miroir
linocut rincé printed in white, with China ink, 1963-64, on Arches wove paper
B. 710 x 575 mm., S. 750 x 620 mm.
signed in pencil inside the image at upper right
one of only four or five recorded impressions
Provenance:
With Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris. (Inventory number 013345)
With Sala Gaspar, Barcelona
Acquired from the above; thence by descent private collection
Literature
Brigitte Baer, Picasso, Peintre-graveur : catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre gravé et des monotypes, volume V, no. 1036;
Christian Zervos, Catalogue raisonné des oeuvres de Pablo Picasso, éditions Cahiers d’art, Paris, 1932-1978, Vol. XXIV,
no. 4
Description
Femmes au Miroir demonstrates Pablo Picasso’s tendency to immerse himself in a particular theme as well as his habit
of revisiting an image, sometimes years after it was first executed, to explore the visual impact of subtle changes to the
composition. Picasso first took up the medium of linoleum cut in 1954 with a simple black and white work and by the
mid-1950s, he was fully absorbed in this technique. In the second week of February 1956, the artist executed five related
plates (documented by Baer as 1034, 1035a, 1035b, 1036 and 1037) one of which is Femmes au Mirroir (Baer1036). In
subsequent years, collaboration with the local printer, Hidalgo Arnéra, yielded an innovative process allowing Picasso to
return to a previous image and create a unique work which he called an ‘epreuve rincée’, or rinsed proof.
The rincée process involved printing the original linoleum block in greasy cream colored ink onto heavy white paper.
Picasso then painted the unprinted areas in black China ink. While the black ink was absorbed in the unprinted areas, those
printed with greasy, white ink repelled the China ink, producing a negative of the earlier image and allowing Picasso to
experiment with unique compositions. Finally, Picasso rinsed the print in the shower or bathtub, producing an effect more
akin to painting than traditional linoleum cuts, and giving rise to the term ‘bathtub prints’.