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In September 1930, Picasso began the illustrations for Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a collection of tales of the adventures and loves of gods and goddesses. Ovid’s Metamorphoses was the first book published by Albert Skira and was comprised of 30 etchings. The idea of using the theme from Ovid was suggested to Picasso by Matisse’s son Pierre.
At this time, Picasso had just recently found quarters very close to his home for his young mistress, Marie-Therese Walter. “This new arrangement filled him with gaiety and ‘joie de vivre’” (Crammer, 56). Consequently, Marie-Therese is often depicted in the illustrations for Les Metamorphoses. One can see her influence in the curvaceous bodies and soft female faces throughout the suite.
Picasso’s illustration of the Metamorphoses varies from several of his other illustrations. Although Picasso’s illustrations did not always reflect the text, in this instance “indeed it may be said that Picasso has created few other book illustrations in which his interpretation of the spirit of the text agrees so closely with that commonly accepted . . . It is as if a spark from Ovid’s great epic, which embodies for us in large measure the spirit of the antique, had kindled Picasso to forgo his frequent exaggerations of individual elements and to illustrate this book in a manner less at variance with tradition than is usual with him.” (Horodisch, 43)
Crammer, Patrick, Pablo Picasso The Illustrated Books: Catalogue Raisonne. Patrick Crammer, Publisher: Geneva, 1983.
Horodisch, Abraham, Picasso as a Book Artist. The World Publishing Company: New York, 1962.
Nash, Steven and Baer, Brigitte, Picasso the Print Maker: Graphics from the Marina Picasso Collection. Dallas Museum of Art, 1983.
Skira, Albert, Prints: History of An Art. Rizzoli International Publication, Inc.: New York, 1981.