It took Picasso seven years—from 1930 to 1937—to produce the one hundred copper etchings that make up the Suite Vollard. Imbued with an autobiographical quality, the prints discuss some of the intimate aspects of the artist’s life such as his relationships with the ballerina Olga Khokhlova, with Marie-Thérèse Walter, and later on with the photographer Dora Maar.

In the summer of 1936, coinciding with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of his relationship with Dora Maar, Picasso etched the plate that concludes the series: Faune déviolant une Femme [Faun Revealing a Woman]. Like the Minotaur, the faun—a half-man, half-animal personage—became the artist’s new alter ego. His expression—that of a voyeur—contrasts with the classic depiction of the sleeping woman, perhaps revealing a final homage to Marie-Thérèse Walter.