Original Etching
Created in 1968, June 29
Hand signed in pencil lower right, numbered lower left
Image size: 8.1" x 5.9" (20.6 x 15 cm)
Paper size: 13.6" x 11.15" (34.5 x 28.3 cm)
Edition: 50
The artwork is part of the "347 Series"
Reference: Bloch, 'Pablo Picasso, catalogue de l'oeuvre gravé et lithographié' No. 1674

Certificate of Authenticity is included.

The artwork is framed. When delivered or picked-up in gallery, framing is included. Artwork ships unframed unless otherwise arranged. Please contact us if you need shipping the artwork framed.

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The “347 Series” was, in printmaking, the undertaking which defined late Picasso. This prodigious outpouring of work, dating from March – October 1968, deals with all of his themes and fantasies, adding an obsession newly central in the late 60s, the artist as observer. The circus was one of Picasso’s first subjects in printmaking. The Saltimbanque series of 1904-5 depicted the strolling acrobats and players who for centuries had drifted around Paris and the French countryside. Here, many years later, the circus is resurrected as a metaphor for life.
Picasso made a 'tour de force' – three hundred and forty-seven engravings are created within 7 months: complex constructions on various and interrelated subjects, such as ‘circus’, ‘bullfights’, ‘Commedia dell’arte’, and ‘Spanish literature’. The suite also includes a group of erotic scenes of lovemaking – explicit but full of humor. In order to be able to work with full freedom and concentration, Picasso had his printers, the brothers Crommelynck, bring the etching plates and hand press to his house in Mougins, near Cannes.

Complete suites of the "347 Series" are part of permanent collections of the following museums and institutions:
Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain
National Library of Paris, France
Picasso Museum in Paris, France
Art Institute of Chicago
Peter Ludwig de Colonia Museum
Art Museum of Israel, Jerusalem
The Gottfried Keller Stiftung of Switzerland