The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 24, 2025

Nine rectangular, black-inked prints in three rows of three of two nude woman reclining, increasingly abstracted viewed left to right and down. The woman on our left faces our right, knees bent, one arm resting on her knee and the other hand under chin as she looks over our right shoulder. The woman on our right lays, arms behind head and eyes closed. Abstracted across the prints, rounded shapes create the women by the bottom.

Two Nude Women (A series of progressive proofs)

1945–46

Pablo Picasso

(Spanish, 1881–1973)
printer and publisher

Mourlot

Spain, 20th century
lithographs
Image: 26 x 34.9 cm (10 1/4 x 13 3/4 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1972.53
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Catalogue raisonné: Bloch 390; Mourlot 16
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The two figures in this print are thought to represent the painter Françoise Gilot and the photographer Dora Maar, both of whom were romantically involved with Picasso around this time.

Description

Picasso printed each of these nine lithographs from the same stone. This technique involves chemically sealing a drawing to the surface of a printing stone so that ink adheres to the design and the stone can be run through a printing press. Picasso edited and reprinted his stone as he transformed the image. The artist ultimately created 21 states, or variations, highlighting his fascination with what he described as the “metamorphosis” possible through printmaking. He experimented with realistic and abstract versions of the composition, which features women sitting and sleeping, while also adding and removing marginal images as he worked.
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1972." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (March 1973): 63-115. P. 112, #213-221. Reproduced: #217, p. 90. www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 241 archive.org
  • Picasso and Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (co-organizer) (December 8, 2024-March 23, 2025).
    The Vocabulary of Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 29-December 31, 1975).
    Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).
  • {{cite web|title=Two Nude Women (A series of progressive proofs)|url=false|author=Pablo Picasso, Mourlot|year=1945–46|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.53