The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Portraits of the faces of two children created from thick smears of black ink on white paper. Streaks of ink outline the face and wisps of hair of the child on the left, the face and background showing white. The child's face on the right is created by clustered black ink dabs dominating the background and blending in the face, save for the child's right cheek and around where their neck would be, showing white.

Paloma and Claude (cover design for Picasso's Lithographs II)

1950

Pablo Picasso

(Spanish, 1881–1973)

printer and publisher

Mourlot

Spain, 20th century

transfer lithograph

Overall: 32 x 51.6 cm (12 5/8 x 20 5/16 in.)

Gift of The Cleveland Museum of Art Library 1956.599

Catalogue raisonné: Bloch 664; Mourlot III.44.186; Cramer 60

Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Picasso frequently depicted Claude and Paloma, his children with the artist Françoise Gilot.

Description

To create the portrait of his two children seen here, Picasso applied lithographic ink directly to a printing stone using his fingers. He experimented with the technique during the print’s creation, wiping the material in sweeping marks to depict his daughter, Paloma, and layering his fingerprints for the image of his son, Claude. The vertical border between the pair suggests the work’s intended use as the cover of a book about Picasso’s lithographs.

Picasso and Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (co-organizer) (December 8, 2024-March 23, 2025).
Prints and Drawings, 1916-1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 20-July 24, 1966).
Human Rights. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1963-January 12, 1964).
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Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.599