Pablo Picasso | Une Maja Posant sur un Piédestal

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
Une Maja Posant sur un Piédestal, 1968
Sugarlift aquatint and etching on Richard-de-Bas laid paper | Épreuve d'artiste

By 1968, Picasso was eighty-six years old and working with an urgency that had not diminished. The La Celestine suite — from which this work is drawn — was produced at the Atelier Crommelynck in Paris, printed under Picasso's direct supervision. The suite takes its name from the fifteenth-century Spanish tragicomedy and gives Picasso license to explore the female figure, desire, and the gaze with the freedom of an artist who has long since ceased to require anyone's permission.

Une Maja Posant sur un Piédestal presents the standing female figure in the posture of the classical maja — the Spanish archetype of female beauty and composure — elevated on a plinth as if for inspection. The sugarlift aquatint process gives the surface a soft, painterly quality quite different from the sharp linearity of Picasso's earlier etchings. This is a late work, and it shows: the line is looser, the composition more concentrated, the psychological dynamic between viewer and subject more openly acknowledged.

This impression is an épreuve d'artiste — an artist's proof, outside the main edition, typically reserved for the artist's personal use and considered among the most desirable impressions in any print series. Printed at Atelier Crommelynck, Paris.

Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot. Private viewings by appointment for collectors across Berkshire, Surrey, and London.

Sugarlift aquatint and etching
Richard-de-Bas laid paper with La Celestine watermark
Épreuve d'artiste
Printed by Atelier Crommelynck, Paris
Image: 4.5 × 2.25 in
Certificate of Authenticity