Pablo Picasso

La Mort de Marat [The Death of Marat]

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About this artwork

This print was included as a loose frontispiece in Benjamin Péret’s book, ‘De Derrière les Fagots’, published in 1934. The subject comes from Jacques-Louis David’s celebrated neo-classical painting, ‘The Death of Marat’. The theme may relate to Picasso’s complicated love life, with the dying figure representing his mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, while the screaming killer, wielding a hefty knife, could be his wife Olga. The violent subject matter has a close parallel with slightly earlier works by the surrealist artist André Masson. The smudged, coloured patches were probably added by a monotype technique. This would have been done by wiping the inked copper plate with gouache or coloured ink, and then printing it. In this way, the colouring on each print would have been unique.

Updated before 2020

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Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso