One of the very last print suites that Picasso ever published, the Portraits Imaginaires are the culmination of eight decades of restless innovation.

Picasso’s final years were spent in a creative frenzy. In 1969 a large delivery of art materials arrived at his Mougins studio and became fuel for his next furious cycle of production. He was not content to use the new inks, paints, and brushes alone. Everything – from the hairy string and thick paper wrapping of each parcel to the corrugated cardboard boxes in which they had arrived – suggested a potential surface for experimentation, and he quickly set to work painting a series of twenty-nine imaginary portraits.

Produced in oils and gouache applied directly to the unprepared boxes and paper sheets, these bizarre portraits feature the moustachioed musketeers that dominate his final works, alongside depictions of Balzac, Shakespeare, and aggressively abstracted female faces.

These portraits channel the directness and vitality of Rembrandt, his love of costume and the power of the subject’s gaze, and in doing so they announced to the world that Picasso was the reigning modern-day master.

The artist was so delighted with the results of his experiment that he sought out a printmaker to reproduce them as a suite of lithographs, a search that led him to Marcel Salinas.

Two trial proofs were demanded of Salinas before work on the suite was begun. They were of such impressive quality that Picasso offered Salinas top billing alongside his own name upon publication, the only printer to earn such an honour. Under the close supervision of the artist each portrait was reproduced by hand, drawn directly onto the lithographic plate before being printed for inspection.

Picasso offered his corrections and alterations before approving the prints for publication. The entire process took over a year to complete. Once published, each lithographic plate was destroyed and the two editions of 250 each – labelled ‘F’ for the French market and ‘A’ for America and the rest of the world – were hand-numbered ready for distribution.

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