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Not only Beckmann, but also Picasso created various graphic series. The present prints by Picasso are based on the story ‘The Unknown Masterpiece‘ by the French writer Honoré de Balzac from 1831, which was republished in Paris in 1931. In 1927, the French publisher and gallery owner Ambroise Vollard asked Picasso to produce illustrations for this book. In it, the fictional German painter Frenhofer works obsessively on a portrait of a woman that is to become his masterpiece. But when he shows his work to two friends, they criticise it harshly. Distraught by the harsh criticism, the painter destroys his masterpiece and commits suicide. Balzac's story is about the relationship between art and reality and the search for artistic perfection, which Picasso personally reflected in his etchings. For him, however, the focus was on the theme of ‘painter and model‘, which also has an erotic side.