Picasso, Pablo (Spanish, 1881-1973) Etching Print. “Femme Assise ai Chapeau et Femme Debout Drapee” or "Two Women.” Etching Print dated 1934. From the Vollard Suite, on 'Vollard' watermarked laid paper with full margins. Signed in pencil lower right Picasso and plate signed lower left Paris June 29, 1934", from the complete edition of 250. Print is unframed and in good condition with slight toning. Measures 7 ” x 10 3/8”.

From Ledorfineart.com: The Vollard Suite was named for its publisher, the famous Parisian art dealer and critic, Ambroise Vollard. Vollard gave Picasso his first show and served as his art dealer early on. In later years, he published two of Picasso’s illustrated books, and, emboldened by the success of those projects, commissioned Picasso in 1930 to create The Vollard Suite, a group of 100 prints which became Picasso’s most celebrated series. Picasso began creating these prints in 1933 and topped the series off in 1937 with three portraits of Vollard, who narcissistically insured that every one of his stable of artists created his portrait. Picasso turned the completed copper plates over to his master printer Roger Lacourière, who printed them in 1939. Vollard met an untimely death in a car accident that same year, and the print dealer Henri Petiet purchased the edition from Vollard’s estate. Petiet acquired the entirety of the edition with the exception of the three portraits of Vollard, which may not have been delivered to Vollard at the same time as the rest, and, more accidently than otherwise, were not included in Petiet’s purchase. (The only other prints that didn’t go to Petiet were the few trial proofs, which had been retained by Lacourière and not delivered to Vollard.) Petiet convinced Picasso to start signing The Suite in the 1950s, which Picasso did sporadically for many years, probably up until 1969, when he was overwhelmed with the task of signing of The 347 Series. Although The Vollard Suite is Picasso’s most famous print series, it is important for a collector to understand that Picasso created most of his prints as individual works of art rather than as parts of any series. Furthermore, acknowledging The Vollard Suite as his most famous series does not imply that the prints it comprises are his best prints. Some of his best prints are indeed found within The Suite, but a number of other Suite prints are, frankly, not all that accomplished. Other contemporaneously created prints are just as beautiful but, because they don’t bear the cachet of being a part of The Vollard Suite, sell for a fraction of the price. And that, even though they are in general around five times rarer than The Vollard Suite prints! A discerning collector should pick and choose carefully, but at the very least should think twice before limiting his collection, or even just his collection of prints of the ‘thirties, to The Vollard Suite.Though the Suite in general was an expression of his neoclassical style, Picasso interestingly integrated a number of other styles into some of the Suite, typically with exceptional results. One of the more wonderful examples of this blend is the drypoint pictured below, Sculpteur, Modèle et Sculpture Assise, (Bloch 146, Fig. 13). The sculptor and the model are gazing upon his creation as if to ask, exactly what kind of humanoid is she? This prints seems to occasion this sort of reflection about the Frankenstein because, unlike the other sculptures in the Suite, this one seems almost as lifelike, and as life-size, as its admirers. In a way, the three figures seem engaged in a dialogue. The modestly folded arms of the creature almost seem to be saying, “What, who, me? Watcha starin’ at?” The other amusing pictorial element in this work is the model’s uncanny resemblance to Francoise Gilot, though this work precedes Picasso’s first encounter with that muse by a full decade. But it lends credence to what must be one of the best pick-up lines of all time, one which could only have been pulled off by a great portraitist such as Picasso, and which he tried on her shortly after their first meeting. He said something to the effect of (and I really need to find the exact reference), I’ve always had certain archetypes of women in my art and you’re one of them. I was painting you long before I met you. This line was on a par with his other classic one, by which he first invited Francoise to his apartment, ostensibly in order to see his etchings.

From Askart: A painter and printmaker who revolutionized western art, Pablo Picasso was born in Spain and lived most of his life either there or in France. His father was an art teacher, and the young Pablo grew up in an artistic environment. By the age of fourteen, he was an accomplished draftsman, and in 1900 at age nineteen, he made his first trip to Paris. There he studied the Old Masters and Classical sculpture and also was exposed to the paintings of Impressionists and Post Impressionists. Between 1901 and 1904, his work was dominated by a blue palette, which has led to this time being called his "Blue Period". Blue, for him, was to symbolize the ". . . suffering-frequently hunger and cold, the hardships he experienced while attempting to establish himself." (Arnason, 125) By 1905, his 'Rose or Circus Period' was beginning, and also later that year, he became doing painting reflective of a growing interest in African masks. By 1907, he painted what is regarded as his first masterpiece and as the first Cubist painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Although he said: "I think about Death all the time. She is the only woman who never leaves me." (Walther) His relationships with 'live' women influenced much of his artwork. It is thought that his switch from 'blue' to 'rose', that is from depression to happiness, was determined by his meeting Fernande Olivier, allegedly his first serious female relationship. He lived with her for seven years. From that time, he did numerous portraits of wives, children and mistresses. In 1908, Picasso began working in Paris with Georges Braque (1882-1963), and together until 1914 and the beginning of World War I, they created collages* and the first phase of Cubism* that included still life and portraits. They worked so closely together that many scholars are unable to tell some of their work apart or to determine which of them contributed certain concepts. Picasso went to Rome from 1914 to 1918 to do set designs and costumes for the Russian Ballet and during this time also did some realistic painting and drawing, and printmaking emerged as a major part of his art as a result of the time he spent drawing. His graphic art, which actually dated to 1905, was diverse as he was ever looking for new modes of expression, and he did etchings, drypoint, linocuts, woodcuts, aquatints and sometimes combinations. In Rome, he met his first wife, Olga Koklova, a Russian ballet dancer. In the early part of the 1920s, he did abstract figurative work that was so grotesque in distortion that it set the stage for his participation in Surrealist* exhibitions in Europe. Also the experimentation with figurative shapes led him to sculpture, an interest he had expressed earlier. The 1920s are regarded as one of the most productive periods of Picasso's career. He did paintings with vivid coloration expressing his ". . .total experience of curvilinear cubism and classical idealism." (Arnason, 393) In 1927, he began a relationship with seventeen-year-old Marie Therese Walther, and in 1936 with Dora Maar, a photographer. In 1937, inspired by the Spanish Civil War, he painted Guernica; this is regarded as one of his landmark paintings and certainly one that carried a strong message of human suffering during wartime. During the World War II years, Picasso did a lot of modeling in clay and creating of assemblages with found objects, and many of the pieces, especially after the War, expressed his sense of humor. Also after the War, he began creating with ceramics, and he was very productive with printmaking. His female companion, beginning 1943, was Francoise Gilot, a painter, with whom he had two children, Claude and Paloma. His last female relationship was with Jacqueline Roque, whom he met in 1953 and married in 1961. Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at the age of 91. The last eight years of his life had been difficult because of prostate problems, but he continued to be productive. Of him, it was written in Time magazine, May 26, 1980: "To the end . . . Picasso remained Picasso; an indefatigable worker, a lover of mischief and pranks, quirky, increasingly aloof, mercurial, yet often remarkably generous and warm."