19/03/2026
Pablo Picasso: new in our collection, two lithographs from the Imaginary Portraits series.
Published by Cercle d'Art and printed by Marcel Salinas 1970
In early 1969, art supplies arrived at Picasso's studio in Mougins on the French Riviera. Large panels of cardboard had been used to ship the supplies. The supplies were uncrated and the boxes and other shipping materials were set aside against a wall in Picasso's studio. Rather than seeing large pieces of cardboard, Picasso saw 29 canvases awaiting his brush, and at the age of 87 he created 29 portraits which would come to be known as the Portraits Imaginaire or Imaginairy Portraits. Each portrait was created in gouache with simple and brilliant colors. Under Picasso's personal supervision, and with the expertise of one of France's leading lithographers, Marcel Salinas, lithographs were created in the image of the 29 original Portraits Imaginaire. Proofs of the lithographs were submitted to Picasso who corrected them and noted his "bon a tirer" (meaning they were "good to print"). It took a year to create the lithographs. Upon completion, the plates were destroyed. Each print is hand numbered and carries, in the plate, the signature of Picasso as it appears on the orginal gouache. Picasso did not hand sign any of the Imaginary Portrait lithograph
