On the back of an envelope from the Simon Gallery, probably in 1932, Picasso wrote: “When I see Manet's Luncheon on the Grass, I think to myself, ‘Pain for later.’” Written statements by the artist about painters or their works are extremely rare. This one is all the more exceptional in that it refers to a specific painting; it projects the artist into an indeterminate future, yet one that is sketched out in this announced rendezvous.

During his career, Picasso revisited Cranach, Poussin, Velázquez, Rembrandt, David, Delacroix, and Courbet. But his experiment with Manet's painting is undoubtedly the most profound and complex he ever undertook.

In August 1959, Picasso returned to Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, around which he produced six drawings. The subject was subsequently treated on canvas, in linocut, and finally in ceramics, transforming itself each time.