Drawn in January 1959, Le Vieux Roi reduces the figure of an ageing king to a handful of wonderfully economical lines: crown, beard, profile and expression.
Picasso created the lithograph for the French newspaper Le Patriote in Nice. It was printed by Mourlot, the legendary Paris workshop responsible for some of the twentieth century's most important lithographs.
This impression comes from the larger edition of 1,000 carrying Picasso's red printed/stamped signature. A separate hand-signed and numbered edition was also produced.
For us, its appeal is simple: it looks unmistakably like Picasso without needing a five-figure budget.
