Pablo Picasso

PABLO PICASSO (Málaga, 1881 – Mougins, France, 1973).
“La Diseuse de bonne aventure,” 1971.
Aquatint on Rives vellum paper. Copy H.C. 8/C, outside the numbered edition of 50 copies.
Signed with the artist’s seal and verified in pencil.
It belongs to the series of 156 prints, created by Picasso between 1968 and 1972 and published by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris.
The edition was completed in 1978 at the Crommelynck workshops.
Provenance: the personal collection of Aldo Crommelynck, publisher, collaborator, and friend of the artist.
Bibliography: Georges Bloch, no. 1880; Brigitte Baer, no. 1886 Bc.
Measurements: 20.5 x 15.9 cm (print); 25 x 33 cm (paper).

This aquatint is part of the famous series of 156 prints, Picasso’s last major print cycle, created between October 24, 1968, and March 25, 1972, and published by the Galerie Louise Leiris. The series constitutes one of the fundamental bodies of work in his late career, in which the artist freely revisited recurring themes from his artistic universe—eroticism, the gaze, the artist and the model, and references to the masters of the past—and experimented intensively with various printmaking techniques. The series was exhibited at the Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris in early 1973, shortly before the artist’s death.

In “La Diseuse de bonne aventure,” two figures emerge through clear, energetic lines against the deep black background of the aquatint. The woman holds her interlocutor’s hand in the gesture typical of fortune-telling, while the strong characterization of both faces and the density of the surface lend the scene an almost theatrical intensity. The contrast between the solid background and the incised lines of the drawing is particularly representative of the technical freedom Picasso achieved in his final years as a printmaker.

Pablo Picasso was a pivotal figure in 20th-century art and, alongside his work in painting and sculpture, was extraordinarily prolific as a printmaker. Throughout his career, he produced more than two thousand prints and continually explored techniques such as etching, aquatint, drypoint, lithography, and linocut, working closely with some of the great master printers of his time. In his later years, his collaboration with the Crommelynck brothers gave rise to a period of exceptional graphic intensity, which included the series of 156 prints. His graphic work holds a prominent place in collections such as those of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museu Picasso in Barcelona.