In May 1931, Picasso moved into the Chateau de Boisgeloup, which was conveniently close to Paris. Many paintings and drawings dating June, July, August, September and October 1932 bear the annotation “Boisgeloup”.

Between September 4 and 15, Picasso executed a series of about twenty very small paintings, all of which depict women frolicking on the beach. The paintings are gay, burlesque and “cartoon-like.” The women have amoeba-like anatomy that they push and pull in different directions, at times bending their bodies with the professional movements of Picasso’s circus acrobats from February 1933. 

This rescue scene is an allusion to a real story in which Marie-Therese nearly drowned before Picasso’s eyes - an experience which left him deeply shaken. This is one of a series of works that owes much to the Surrealist movement that saw the artist involved from 1925 to 1937.

Features: 

• Original Etching on Arches watermarked paper
• Etching printed over collage additions in two shades of orange
• November 29 1932, IV, Paris
• Signed by the artist in pencil
• Full margins
• Edition: From the edition of 100. The proofs were signed by the artist but never numbered.
• Printed by: Lacouriere, Paris
• Size: 250 x 330 mm (paper size) ; 113 x 140 mm (plate size)