In the 1950s, the Picasso often drew inspiration from important works by old masters such as Cranach, Velázquez and Delacroix. He based the motif for this linocut on a work by Lucas Cranach the Younger: his "Weibliches Bildnis" of 1564, which is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (see comparative illustrations). Picasso's attention was drawn to this portrait by a postcard sent to him by his dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. He probably found the juxtaposition of abstract two-dimensionality and fine ornamental detail as fascinating as the highly expressive contours of the cast shadow and curtain motif in the background.

Picasso freely transposed the motif into a cubist, highly rhythmic pictorial concept, creating a masterpiece of printmaking. The shapes balance and correspond to each other, the details are meticulously developed and the monolithic areas of colour create a play of extreme balance. The characteristic lines inserted with the energetically handled gouge and the five coloured plates printed one on top of the other - with their colours superimposed in certain passages - underlie the almost painterly quality of the work.

This work is an intermediary proof, not edited for commerce, and comes from the Arnera Succession, printer of all of Picasso's linocuts. It is exceedingly rare. Chronologically, the Black Plate was the first, and the motif is entirely engraved in this stage. As such, it was the keystone of the composition. It appears as the Fifth State in the Catalogue raisonné because, in the creation of the final subject, it was the fifth plate to be removed. Picasso worked from a greetings card of the Vienna work sent by Khanweiller, his friend and merchant, which was hanging in the studio.
Portrait de jeune fille, d'après Cranach le Jeune of 1958 is Picasso's first and most important linocut. Together with the young printer Hidalgo Arnéra, he created this elaborate portrait of a sixteenth-century girl, four centuries after the painting by the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Younger. Today, it can be found in some of the world's greatest public collections, such as the MoMA in New-York, the Metropolitan Museum and the Picasso Museum in Paris.

© Succession Picasso 2026