Lithograph, 1949, on Velin Arches paper, inscribed, dated and signed lower left in red chalk ‘Pour Geneviève Laporte (épreuve unique) 26.5.51 Picasso’, a rare unique print, dedicated to Geneviève Laporte, his lover during the 1950s, aside from the six artist's and printer's proofs, image: 64.5 x 47.7 cm. (25.4 x 18.8 in.), sheet: 70 x 50 cm. (27.5 x 19.7 in.)

In the late 1940s Picasso entered his ‘old master period’, spending the next decade studying and reworking masterpieces of the past to rewrite them in his own visual language. This work is based on a painting by the German Renaissance painter and printmaker, Lucas Cranach the Elder and depicts the biblical King David gazing upon the beautiful Bathsheba as she bathes. Noted for the use of contour and absence of chiaroscuro in his works, Cranach was a highly skilful and much revered printmaker. Picasso greatly admired the master printmakers who had come before him, highlighting the importance of the medium in Picasso’s own work.