Paysage a Vallauris

From 1948 to 1955, Picasso lived in Vallauris, a picturesque village in the hills above Cannes on the French Riviera. There he became a prolific producer of ceramics—a new medium for him—and made simple linocut posters to advertise his exhibitions. He had them printed on the large mechanical presses of Hidalgo Arnéra, a talented local commercial printer, and was inspired to experiment further with linocut as a printmaking medium. Even after Picasso moved away from Vallauris, he frequently returned to work with Arnéra, who helped him developed his linocuts, and to enjoy the bullfights that the town legalized in the mid-1950s.