Flowers in a Vase

This drawing was made during the year Picasso stopped painting to focus instead on printmaking and drawing. He would later cite this year as the “worst time of his life,” as he was embroiled in a personal crisis: his mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, was pregnant, and his wife, Olga, was leaving him. The dark line work surrounding this bouquet might be reflective of the stress the artist was experiencing at the time.