Aquatint
13 works
Pablo Picasso Salomé For Sale
Pablo Picasso
Salomé, 1905
Drypoint on Arches laid paper
Sheet: 25 7/8 x 20 1/16 in.
Edition
Edition of 279
About this work
Created during Picasso’s Rose Period, Salomé (1905) is a striking early example of his engagement with line as both narrative and expressive device. Executed in drypoint, the work depicts the biblical figure Salomé—often associated with seduction and destruction—rendered with remarkable restraint. Here, Picasso pares down form to its most essential elements, using the economy of line to convey gesture, emotion, and atmosphere with a precision that belies its simplicity.The composition places figures across the plate in a delicate balance of absence and presence. The faintly etched lines suggest a sense of incompleteness, yet this very spareness creates an ethereal effect, emphasizing movement and psychological tension over detailed description. Salomé’s body, stretched in a balletic pose, radiates both elegance and menace, while the kneeling figure beside her, drawn with just enough detail to capture expression, anchors the scene in quiet intensity.What is most remarkable here is the way Picasso uses simplicity of line to expand rather than limit meaning. Each contour feels deliberate, charged with vitality, recalling the calligraphic clarity of Ingres but freed of its rigidity. Picasso understood that suggestion could often achieve more than representation—the thin, unembellished strokes evoke flesh, weight, and emotion without laboring over detail. This economy becomes a hallmark of his lifelong practice, from his neoclassical drawings to his late lithographs and ceramics.In Salomé, one senses the young Picasso already probing the expressive potential of reduction. By stripping away excess, he leaves room for ambiguity and interpretation, inviting the viewer to project psychological depth into the spare framework of lines. The drypoint technique, with its subtle burr and delicate textures, enhances this effect, making the image simultaneously fragile and immediate.Though this work predates Picasso’s Cubist innovations, it demonstrates the seeds of his radical approach: a confidence in the sufficiency of line, a belief that art could capture essence rather than mere likeness. Salomé is both an homage to tradition and a quiet revolution, an early marker of Picasso’s mastery of simplicity—where every line carries the weight of intention and discovery.For more information or to buy Salomé (1905) by Pablo Picasso, contact our galleries using the form below.
Price on Application
Auction History
Salomé, from La Suite de Saltimbanques · Pablo Picasso · Christie's · 2016-05 · $149,000
Salomé · Pablo Picasso · Kornfeld · 2025-09 · $109,190
Salomé, from: La Suite des Saltimbanques · Pablo Picasso · Christie's · 2023-03 · $91,207
Salome · Pablo Picasso · Sotheby's · 2010-09 · $76,934
salome · Pablo Picasso · Sotheby's · 2006-03 · $27,293
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More series by Pablo Picasso
About the Etching Series
Pablo Picasso Etching Prints For Sale
Market Authority in Picasso Printmaking
Pablo Picasso's etchings represent one of the most historically significant and consistently performing segments of the modern print market. From his earliest Paris etchings of the 1900s through to the extraordinary late suites of the 1960s and early 1970s, Picasso's command of the etched line was absolute — a vehicle for psychological intensity, mythological imagination, and technical experimentation that yielded some of the greatest prints in the history of the medium. Guy Hepner offers Picasso etchings for sale with full Bloch catalogue references, provenance documentation, and expert authentication.
The Vollard Suite (1930–1937): Picasso's Greatest Print Achievement
The Vollard Suite is the centrepiece of any serious engagement with Picasso's print career — ninety-seven etchings and three aquatints commissioned by the legendary Paris dealer Ambroise Vollard between 1930 and 1937. Executed almost entirely in the pure etching and drypoint technique, with occasional aquatint from Roger Lacourière, these one hundred plates are widely regarded as the greatest print series produced in the twentieth century.
The suite divides into recognisable thematic sequences. The Sculptor's Studio plates (the largest group, forty-six images) depict a bearded sculptor — recognisably Picasso — in the presence of his model and his creations, in an atmosphere that combines erotic intimacy with classical serenity. The model is Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso's young lover from 1927, and her face and rounded form appear throughout the suite with an ideality that draws on Greek sculpture.
The Minotaur sequence addresses the mythological creature that Picasso had adopted as his alter ego — half-man, half-bull, simultaneously creator and destroyer. The Minotaur plates range from scenes of blind, drunken wandering (the Blind Minotaur led by a Girl with a Dove is one of the most emotionally powerful images in Western printmaking) to violent combat and tender repose. The psychological charge of these images has never been surpassed in the print medium.
Individual Vollard Suite plates now trade between $80,000 and $500,000 at the major auction houses, with exceptional impressions of the most important plates — particularly the Blind Minotaur — exceeding these figures. The complete suite appears at auction rarely and commands extraordinary prices.
Suite 347 (1968): Late Energy, Undiminished
Suite 347 — three hundred and forty-seven etchings completed in a period of seven months between March and October 1968 — stands as one of the most astonishing demonstrations of creative vitality in the history of art. Picasso was eighty-six years old. The suite was produced at the Crommelynck workshop in Paris under the guidance of master printers Piero and Aldo Crommelynck, who became Picasso's primary print collaborators for the final decade of his life.
Thematically, Suite 347 is wild, digressive, and exhilarating. Picasso ranges across Degas's brothel scenes (which had recently been published and which electrified him), Spanish subject matter including picadors, toreros, and hidalgo figures, scenes of artists and models, and a recurring cast of dwarfs, old men, and watching voyeurs drawn from Velázquez and Rembrandt. The suite is simultaneously autobiography, art history, and erotic fantasy.
The Crommelynck prints have a distinctive refinement — the workshop's technical precision complemented Picasso's improvisational line, producing impressions of exceptional clarity. Edition sizes for Suite 347 are typically 50 impressions.
The 156 Series (1970–1972): Final Print Campaign
Picasso's final major print campaign, the 156 Series etchings produced again at the Crommelynck workshop, continues the themes of Suite 347 with even greater economy of means. These late works — produced when Picasso was between 88 and 90 years old — have the directness of gesture drawing, the line stripped to its essentials. They are increasingly valued by collectors who seek the most distilled expression of a late style that was still fully alive.
Bloch Catalogue Reference System
The Bloch catalogue raisonné (Picasso: His Graphic Work, Bernhard Geiser and Hans Bolliger, later continued by Brigitte Baer) is the definitive scholarly record of Picasso's complete print output. Bloch numbers (cited as B. followed by the catalogue number) provide the primary authentication reference for every etching, lithograph, linocut, and aquatint. Major auction house catalogues cite Bloch numbers as standard practice; any serious purchase should begin with Bloch verification.
For etchings specifically, Geiser's separate catalogue of the early graphic work provides additional scholarly context for pre-1930 prints.
Price Guide: Picasso Etchings
- Early etchings (pre-1930), minor subjects: $5,000–$25,000
- Early etchings (pre-1930), major compositions: $25,000–$60,000
- Suite 347 individual plates: $15,000–$80,000
- 156 Series plates: $10,000–$40,000
- Vollard Suite individual plates (standard subjects): $80,000–$200,000
- Vollard Suite major plates (Minotaur, Blind Minotaur, Sculptor's Studio key images): $200,000–$500,000+
Authentication Requirements
Authenticating Picasso etchings requires the following:
Bloch catalogue verification: confirm the image against the illustrated catalogue entry, verify the described state and edition information.
Plate tone and impression quality: genuine Picasso etchings have a characteristic plate tone in early impressions. Over-inked or underinked impressions suggest reprinting.
Provenance chain: ideally traceable to original publication by Vollard's estate, Galerie Louise Leiris (Suite 347), or another documented primary source.
Succession Picasso estate stamps: appear on some authorised posthumous publications.
Expert examination: for Vollard Suite and other high-value works, examination by a recognised specialist in Picasso prints is strongly recommended before purchase.
Guy Hepner provides full Bloch catalogue references, condition reports, and provenance documentation for all Picasso etchings for sale. Contact us for current inventory and private sale opportunities.
About Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973, born Málaga, Spain) is the most productive and formally transformative artist in the history of Western art — a figure whose influence on twentieth-century painting, sculpture, printmaking, and ceramics is so pervasive that it remains, more than fifty years after his death, genuinely difficult to assess. Born in Málaga to an art teacher father who recognised and encouraged his prodigious talent, Picasso studied in Barcelona and Madrid before arriving in Paris in the early years of the twentieth century, where the encounter with Cézanne, African art, and his own restless intelligence produced Cubism — perhaps the most radical rupture in the history of representation since the Renaissance.
Pablo Picasso prints for sale at Guy Hepner represent one of the most significant collecting opportunities in the modern art market. Our gallery offers original Picasso lithographs, linocuts, etchings, and aquatints — each accompanied by full provenance documentation and catalogue raisonné references. Whether you are seeking a signed Mourlot lithograph, a Vollard Suite etching, a Vallauris linocut, or a late aquatint, Guy Hepner has the expertise and inventory to assist collectors at every level.
Pablo Picasso Prints For Sale
Picasso's print output is among the richest and most varied in art history, spanning etchings, lithographs, linocuts, and aquatints produced across seven decades. Understanding the categories is essential to collecting intelligently.
Lithographs were produced primarily through Fernand Mourlot's atelier in Paris, where Picasso worked from 1945 onwards. Mourlot documented over 400 lithographs bearing Picasso's hand, ranging from abstract heads and Cubist still lifes to the monumental Toros y Toreros bull-fighting series. Editions typically run from 50 to 275 copies. Unsigned Mourlot lithographs trade between $3,000 and $40,000; signed examples command $15,000 to $150,000 or more depending on subject and condition.
Linocuts, produced primarily at Vallauris between 1958 and 1963 using Picasso's own colour-reduction technique, are among the most technically revolutionary of all his prints. By cutting progressively deeper into a single block, Picasso achieved complex colour sequences impossible by conventional means. Edition sizes are small — typically 50 copies — and signed linocuts frequently exceed $80,000 at auction.
Etchings span Picasso's entire career, from his earliest Parisian years through to the late suites of the 1960s and early 1970s. The medium suited his restless line perfectly, and his etched output includes some of the finest prints of the twentieth century. Edition sizes vary widely, from the 50 impressions of the Vollard Suite to smaller later editions. Prices range from $5,000 for minor early works to well over $500,000 for Vollard Suite masterpieces.
Aquatints combine etching's linear precision with tonal washes of extraordinary subtlety. Picasso's aquatint work, often produced in collaboration with master printer Roger Lacourière, includes some of his most formally sophisticated printed images. These prints are rarer than his lithographs and command significant premiums accordingly.
Authentication for all Picasso prints relies on the Bloch catalogue raisonné — the definitive scholarly record of his print output — supplemented by Mourlot's lithograph catalogue where applicable.
Pablo Picasso Paintings For Sale
Picasso's paintings represent the summit of the twentieth-century market. Understanding his periods is essential for collectors.
The Blue Period (1901–1904) produced austere, emotionally charged paintings on themes of poverty, isolation, and melancholy — elongated figures rendered in blue-grey tones that echo El Greco and carry an extraordinary psychological weight. Works from this period are among the most sought-after in the history of art.
The Rose Period (1904–1906) brought warmer hues and more tender subjects — circus performers, saltimbanques, and acrobats rendered with a new formal assurance. The transitional works that followed, leading to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), represent the hinge on which the entire history of modern painting pivots.
The Cubist period (1907–1921), co-developed with Georges Braque, produced the most intellectually radical body of painting in the twentieth century. Analytic Cubism (1909–1912) fragmented forms into near-monochromatic facets; Synthetic Cubism (from 1912) introduced collage, typography, and bolder colour. Major Cubist paintings are virtually never available on the primary market; they appear at auction rarely and achieve extraordinary prices.
Picasso's auction record stands at $179,365,000 — achieved at Christie's New York in May 2015 for Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O), a 1955 work from his series responding to Delacroix. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) reached $106,482,500 at Christie's in May 2010. These are benchmark figures for a career that produced well over 16,000 works catalogued by Zervos.
Collecting Picasso: What to Look For
The most desirable areas of the Picasso print market for serious collectors are well-defined.
The Vollard Suite (1930–1937): ninety-seven etchings (and three aquatints with Roger Lacourière) commissioned by dealer Ambroise Vollard. The suite is considered Picasso's greatest print achievement — 100 plates encompassing the Sculptor's Studio sequence, the Minotaur series, and intimate portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter. Published posthumously by Vollard's estate, the complete suite is extraordinarily rare. Individual plates now trade from $80,000 to over $500,000.
Suite 347 (1968): three hundred and forty-seven etchings completed in seven months when Picasso was eighty-six years old — an astonishing demonstration of creative energy in extreme old age. Themes include Degas's brothel scenes, Spanish picadors, Rembrandt, and Ingres. Published by Galerie Louise Leiris. These prints represent exceptional value relative to their historical importance.
Mourlot lithographs: Fernando Mourlot's catalogue documents Picasso's lithographic output with scholarly precision. The Bloch numbers (B.1 through B.2042 for the complete print oeuvre) and Mourlot numbers together form the authentication framework used by every major auction house.
Crommelynck etchings: Piero and Aldo Crommelynck's Paris workshop produced Picasso's late etchings with extraordinary technical refinement. The 347 Suite plates were printed here, as were the 156 Series etchings (1970–1972) — Picasso's final major print campaign.
Condition criteria for print collecting: look for clean, wide margins with no trimming; avoid foxing (rust-coloured spots from paper acidity) or tide lines; fading affects lithographs most severely — examine under strong light. Impressions on Japan paper or with remarques command significant premiums.
Picasso Authentication
Authentication for Picasso works operates through established institutional channels.
For prints: the Bloch catalogue raisonné (Picasso: His Graphic Work, Volumes I–IV) provides reference numbers for all known prints. Mourlot's catalogue covers lithographs specifically. The Succession Picasso estate stamp appears on many posthumously published editions. Any print without clear catalogue raisonné reference and provenance chain should be examined by a specialist before purchase.
For paintings and works on paper: the Comité Picasso (now dissolved) was the primary authentication body; the Succession Picasso now handles estate matters. The Zervos catalogue raisonné (33 volumes) is the authoritative scholarly record for paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Expert authentication by a recognised Picasso specialist is essential for any major purchase.
Guy Hepner Gallery, 177 Tenth Avenue, New York, offers full provenance verification and catalogue raisonné consultation for all Picasso works. We provide free, confidential valuations for collectors looking to sell, and access to a global network of qualified buyers. Our expertise spans ceramics, prints, linocuts, drawings, and paintings across all periods of the artist's work.