Vintage silver print 34,2 x 23,7 cm (13.5 x 9.3 in)
Photographer’s stamp and his copyright stamp on the reverse, signed by the photographer in ink on the reverse, titled in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse
LITERATURE David Douglas Duncan, Picasso and Jacqueline, New York 1988, p. 138 [same series]; David Douglas Duncan, Picasso & Lump. A Dachshund’s Odyssey Wabern-Bern 2006, p. 54-55 [same series].

Some friendships begin under unique circumstances or in extraordinary places: a statement which presumably the American photo journalist David Douglas Duncan and the Spanish painter, sculptor and illustrator Pablo Picasso would subscribe to. When Duncan first met Picasso in 1956, the latter was sitting in the bathtub, scrubbing himself with a washcloth. This scene, as odd as it was intimate, also offered Duncan the opportunity for his first photograph – in certain ways it laid the foundation for the deep friendship between the two men.
Henceforth, the former war photographer visited Picasso at his villa in the south of France and at his studio and was allowed to witness and portray him at work and as a private, withdrawn person. Picasso’s principle of limiting the number of photographers allowed to take his likeness did not apply to Duncan. Their mutual affection resulted in many personal portraits of the artist and insights into his oeuvre and private life.
The present photograph was taken in Cannes in 1957 and shows Picasso posing with naked upper body, a wig and facial mask. The fact that this curious portrait was taken only one year after the two men’s first meeting gives an indication of their intense bond of friendship, which was to last until Picasso’s death in 1973.