How many etchings are in Picasso’s “Vollard Suite”? The answer is 100.
Picasso created the suite between 1930 and 1937 after art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard commissioned him to produce prints. It is named for Vollard, whose exchange with Picasso involved paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne.
The suite is not a single narrative series in one consistent style. Its subjects include classical, mythological, erotic and autobiographical imagery, including recurring scenes involving the Minotaur. Picasso experimented with line etching, drypoint, burin, aquatint and sugar aquatint, techniques he developed further with printmaker Roger Lacourière.
A common mix-up is confusing the number of etchings with the number of complete sets. More than 300 sets were produced, while the suite itself contains 100 etchings. Vollard’s death in 1939 and the Second World War delayed the prints’ wider appearance on the art market until the 1950s.