Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881 to April 8, 1973) was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer considered one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century and the co-creator, along with Georges Braque, of Cubism.

Considered radical in his work, Picasso continues to garner reverence for his technical mastery, visionary creativity and profound empathy. Together, these qualities have distinguished the "disquieting" Spaniard with the "sombrepiercing" eyes as a revolutionary artist. For nearly 80 of his 91 years, Picasso devoted himself to an artistic production that he superstitiously believed would keep him alive, contributing significantly to — and paralleling the entire development of — modern art in the 20th century.

Creation of the famous lithographs from "Portraits Imaginaires" Series.

At 87 years old Picasso had become a living legend. His final years were also extremely prolific, and he seemed to be painting on any material and surface he could get his hands on. In 1967 a delivery of art supplies arrived at Picasso's studio wrapped up in thick paper and boxed in corrugated cardboard. Rather than throw away the packaging, he immediately began to use them as canvases, slathering paint directly onto paper and cardboard and creating these amazing portraits of moustachioed musketeers, abstract female faces, and historical figures like Balzac, Shakespeare, and Rembrandt.

Picasso was so pleased with the results that he sought out a printmaker to reproduce the series and came upon Marcel Salinas. Salinas was a Parisian printmaker who had abandoned a career in law to become an artist and later a renowned printmaker and publisher. He would reproduce Picasso's paintings by hand on lithographic blocks, Picasso occasionally making corrections, before they were printed in two editions of 250 prints.

In a way, these portraits are the perfect Picasso print: they show the evolution of the artist's career from a young portraitist and founder of Cubism to the highly innovative paintings of his later years.

Pablo Picasso（1881年10月25日至1973年4月8日）是西班牙外籍画家，雕塑家，版画家，陶艺家和舞台设计师，被认为是20世纪最伟大，最有影响力的艺术家之一，也是Georges Braque的共同创作者之一。 ，立体主义。 在他的作品中被认为是激进的，毕加索继续为他的技术掌握，富有远见的创造力和深刻的同理心而赢得崇敬。这些品质共同将“令人不安的”西班牙人与作为革命艺术家的“犀利”眼睛区分开来。在他91年的近80年中，毕加索致力于艺术创作，他迷信地认为这将使他活着，为20世纪的现代艺术做出了重要贡献 - 并且与其整体发展相媲美。 从“Portraits Imaginaires”系列中创作着名的石版画。 毕加索在87岁时成为了一个活生生的传奇人物。他的最后几年也非常多产，他似乎在任何材料和表面上绘画，他可以得到他的手。 1967年，毕加索的工作室送到艺术品供应品，用厚纸包裹，用瓦楞纸板包装。他不是丢弃包装，而是立即开始将它们用作画布，将油漆直接涂在纸和纸板上，并制作这些令人惊叹的肖像，这些肖像是由着名的古代火枪手，抽象的女性面孔以及巴尔扎克，莎士比亚和伦勃朗等历史人物组成的。 毕加索对结果感到非常满意，他找到了一位版画家来重现这个系列，并找到了Marcel Salinas。萨利纳斯是一位巴黎版画家，他放弃了从事法律职业，成为一名艺术家，后来成为着名的版画家和出版商。他会在平版印刷版块上手工复制毕加索的画作，毕加索偶尔会进行修正，然后再打印两版250幅版画。 在某种程度上，这些肖像画是完美的毕加索版画：它们展示了艺术家职业生涯的演变，从年轻的肖像画家和立体派的创始人到他晚年的高度创新画作。