This 1957 lithograph by Pablo Picasso, Buste de Femme au Corsage Blanc (Jacqueline de Profil), is a striking portrayal of Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s second wife and most enduring muse. Executed with lithographic wash and scraper on zinc using the lift-ground process, the work demonstrates Picasso’s mastery of lithography and his ability to infuse intimacy and vitality into the medium while pushing its expressive boundaries.

Lithography was one of Picasso’s most versatile tools, allowing him to experiment with both line and tonal richness. In this work, he uses the lift-ground technique—a process where the artist paints directly on the stone or zinc plate with a special solution, which is later etched and printed to reproduce subtle brush effects. By combining this with wash drawing and scraper techniques, Picasso achieves painterly gradations that mimic ink or watercolor on paper, rather than the mechanical sharpness often associated with printmaking.

Here, broad washes define the sitter’s corsage and hair, while the scraper tool introduces highlights and textural variety. The result is a lithograph that feels as spontaneous and fluid as a drawing, underscoring Picasso’s genius for adapting traditional printmaking into a medium of immediacy.

The composition presents Jacqueline in profile, her features elegantly simplified yet deeply expressive. Her dark hair, pulled back, frames a face of serenity and quiet strength. The gentle contour of her nose and the subtle curve of her lips are rendered with delicate precision, contrasting with the darker, more gestural strokes of her corsage and background.

The corsage, suggested through washes of tone rather than strict outline, dissolves into abstraction, drawing attention to the luminous profile. Picasso emphasizes the balance between light and shadow—Jacqueline’s white blouse glowing against the darker mass of her hair and the grey tonal field behind her. This contrast heightens the sense of dignity and calm that defines her presence.

Jacqueline Roque entered Picasso’s life in 1954 and would become not only his partner but also the most frequently depicted figure in his late work, appearing in over 400 portraits. Unlike earlier muses such as Dora Maar, whose portrayals often carried psychological intensity and fragmentation, Jacqueline’s depictions are marked by serenity, devotion, and a sense of timeless grace.

Buste de Femme au Corsage Blanc (Jacqueline de Profil) exemplifies this shift. The image radiates quiet intimacy, revealing Picasso’s admiration and tenderness for his companion. Her profile recalls classical portraiture, aligning Jacqueline with timeless ideals of beauty and muse-like presence.

This lithograph reveals Picasso’s absolute command of lithographic processes. By 1957, he had already created hundreds of prints at the Mourlot studio in Paris, pioneering new approaches to the medium. In this work, his combination of wash and scraper creates both solidity and lightness, merging drawing, painting, and printmaking into a single fluent language.

His handling of Jacqueline’s portrait also reflects a broader trend in his late printmaking: the synthesis of clarity and immediacy. Unlike the fractured forms of his Cubist era or the dense mark-making of his Surrealist etchings, this lithograph distills its subject to essence, where every brushy wash and scraped highlight carries emotional weight.

Buste de Femme au Corsage Blanc (Jacqueline de Profil) (1957) is a masterful lithograph that unites Picasso’s technical innovations with his personal devotion to Jacqueline Roque. Through the lift-ground process, wash drawing, and scraper technique, he transforms lithography into a medium of painterly expressiveness, capturing not only Jacqueline’s profile but also her serenity and symbolic role as muse.

This work is a testament to Picasso’s genius for reinvention: at every stage of his career, he found new ways to adapt printmaking to his vision, and in Jacqueline’s likeness, he created some of the most tender and enduring portraits of his late years.