Pablo Picasso Original Large Signed & Numbered Etching from the 347 Series, 1968

For your consideration is a gorgeous signed and numbered original etching by Pablo Picasso in a gold frame. This work is titled "El Arrastre, avec Ecuyere et Putto" from the famous etching series, La Series 347.  References for this etching are Bloch 1509, Baer 1525. 

Original etching, lightly deckled edges, signed in pencil on the
right under the platemark, and numbered in pencil on the left under the platemark “7/50” (there were also 17 artist’s proofs in addition to this edition of 50).  Dated in plate backwards in the upper left corner of the work, indicating this plate was created on 11 April 1968, and this was the sixth print he created that day from the numbering of “VI”.  Plate size is 16-1/4 wide by 12-1/4height.  Paper size is 22-1/8 by 17-7/8.  Published by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, 1969. Printed by Atelier Crommelynck.  This print is 39 of the La Series 347.  This work has been expensively framed to conservation standards with an ornate molding, archival linen matting, and UV-resistant plexiglass glazing. Dimensions of framed work is 29-1/2” height by 33-1/2 inches width, with 3-1/2 inches depth (for the more elaborate ornate aspects on the frame).

In a burst of creativity at age 86, Picasso created 347 intaglio prints from March through October of 1968. The 347 Series is his second most famous series of prints, after the Suite Vollard series. The image consists of a procession consisting of a large male nude figure with outstretched arms who is standing on a bull’s severed head (on left side), a nude woman standing on a mule (in the upper center), with three mules dragging the bull head (center and lower right).  

An interpretation of the work is that the male on the left is chasing the woman for physical love, while the woman is pursuing the idea or desire for romantic love that is represented by the Putto.