Pablo Picasso: Amours de Jupiter et de Sémélé (1933) | Etching

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
Amours de Jupiter et de Sémélé, 1930 (published 1931)
Etching with remarques on Rives wove paper | Cancelled plate suite of 100

This etching belongs to the suite Picasso produced for the Éditions de la Pléiade publication of Ovid's Metamorphoses — one of the defining collaborations between a major twentieth-century artist and a canonical text of Western literature. The commission gave Picasso licence to engage with the full mythological richness of Ovid's poem: transformation, desire, divinity, and the perpetual instability of the classical world.

Amours de Jupiter et de Sémélé depicts the love of Jupiter and Semele — the mortal woman who asked to see Jupiter in his full divine form and was consumed by his glory. Picasso renders the two embracing classical nude figures in his characteristic pure contour line: economy of means, maximum psychological and physical presence. The additional etched remarque figures in the margins extend the compositional field beyond the main image, creating a visual density that rewards close examination.

From the cancelled plate suite of 100 — meaning the printing plate was cancelled (marked to prevent further printing) after this edition, guaranteeing the integrity of the impression. A significant Picasso graphic work from the height of his classical period.

Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors in Berkshire, Surrey, and London.

Etching with remarques on Rives wove paper
Cancelled plate suite of 100
Published 1931
Certificate of Authenticity
Full provenance documentation