Tête de Femme No. 5 (Portrait de Dora Maar)

This colour aquatint portrait of Dora Maar, from a series of six executed in 1939, provides an unusual insight into Picasso's character and working methods. Picasso found colour printing challenging and frustrating in equal measure, and for three full months the technicians at Lacourière were monopolised in producing these complex portraits. Whilst the proofs were being pulled, Picasso hit upon the idea of producing a book containing reproductions of his notebooks. The portraits of Dora Maar would serve as the hors-texte illustrations. Ambroise Vollard, Picasso's publisher, was enthusiastic about the project and negotiations about the paper and design of the binding were at an advanced stage when Picasso suddenly abandoned the whole enterprise. Whilst he still liked the concept, the process seemed too laborious to him. The plates remained in the atelier, which was virtually shut down as the war closed in on Paris. When Picasso met Lacourière again in 1942, and saw that he was living in extremely straitened circumstances, he decided to help his friend by allowing him to print some of his old plates. It is generally thought that the colour portraits were amongst these plates, and 105 impressions of Tete de Femme no. 5 were printed. But with the project for the book abandoned, Vollard dead, and Dora Maar no longer his mistress and muse, Picasso then refused to have them published. This was in spite of the entreaties of Madame Lacourière, who believed quite rightly that only by publishing them would any money be made to recompense her husband and his numerous assistants for all their hard work three years before. Picasso, however, could not be persuaded. The prints were packed up and stored in his studio for the next thirty years, where they were re-discovered after his death. The edition was subsequently divided amongst Picasso's heirs, and very few have subsequently appeared on the market.