Still-Life with Lunch I

Over a period of five years, Picasso worked with the printer Hildalgo Arnéra (1922–1927) to produce hundreds of linocuts with a printmaking process using a simple linoleum block, a common material in kitchen flooring. The printer described their working method: “Picasso worked at night; in the morning, Marcel the chauffeur brought what he had completed to the print shop with notes added by Jacqueline Roque [Picasso’s wife]. I pulled the proofs and returned them to [his home] La Californie at exactly 1:30.” This idiosyncratic procedure attests to the collaborative effort of Picasso’s printmaking ventures. Still-Life with Lunch I was created by printing one block of linoleum in several different colors. Known as the reduction method, the artist successively cuts away a linoleum block and the printer uses a different color ink at each stage.