Pablo Picasso: The Vollard Suite

The Norton Simon Musuem presents The Vollard Suite,  a collection of one hundred engravings by Pablo Picasso. Executed between 1930 and 1937, the prints touch on a variety of subjects and reflect the neoclassical manner of Picasso's work in the early 1930s.

Named for the famous twentieth-century art dealer and book publisher Ambroise Vollard, the Vollard Suite  traditionally was assumed to have been commissioned by the art dealer as a special collaboration with Picasso. In fact, the Vollard Suite  was simply the result of a business deal between Vollard and the artist. Picasso had wished to buy a painting in Vollard's stock, and as payment he gave the dealer ninety-seven copperplates which he had made between September 1930 and June 1936. To this group he added three portraits of Vollard, which he made on 4 March 1937.

The Norton Simon edition is one of only fifty sets printed on large-format paper, and includes nine proof impressions.