Image: Image reproduction rights managed by Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; institutional source link provided
View source →Pablo Picasso, 1933
Medium
drypoint
Dimensions
Platemark: 29.6 x 36.5 cm (11 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.); Sheet: 38.5 x 50.1 cm (15 3/16 x 19 3/4 in.)
Style
Surrealist-influenced modernism
Decade
1930s
The official Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio record identifies Vollard Suite: Minotaur Caressing a Sleeping Woman as a Pablo Picasso artwork, dated 1933, in drypoint. <em>The Vollard Suite</em> is a group of 100 prints executed in 1930–36 and published by the art dealer Ambroise Vollard in 1939. Since Picasso did not originally create these plates as a unified set, they address several themes, including the legend of the Minotaur. In classical mythology, this fierce monster with a human body and a bull's head was trapped in a labyrinth by the king of Crete until it was slain by the Athenian prince Theseus. The Minotaur was a potent symbol for the Surrealists, an important group of artists in the 1930s, for whom the creature suggested irrational, unconscious impulses. The Minotaur assumes many guises in the <em>Vollard Suite</em>, reflecting many aspects of Picasso's complex personality. Alternately violent and tender, a carouser and a lusty lover, the Minotaur is also pictured wounded and dying. Unhappy with his wife, dancer Olga Koklova, in 1927 Picasso met the beautiful Marie-Thérèse Walter. In <em>Minotaur Caressing a Sleeping Woman</em>, one of the most emotional, tender prints in the <em>Vollard Suite</em>, Picasso, the ardent Minotaur, expresses love and passion for his radiant young mistress.
Vollard Suite: Minotaur Caressing a Sleeping Woman is grouped here under Surrealist Period for gallery navigation based on the date published by Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. This period label is interpretive context, not a replacement for the cited primary object record. The holding collection is documented by the cited institutional source.
2026 Estimated Value
Public collection / market value not asserted
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
Continue Exploring
Chosen for shared style, era, medium, subject, or date.
Head (Tête)
1926 · same style · same era
The Dreamer
1932 · same style · same era
Dying Bull
1934 · same style · same era
Reading at a Table
1934 · same style · same era
No. 6–The Feast
1934 · same style · same era
No. 1–Oath of the Women, Accord between the Spartans
1934 · same style · same era
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Picasso: A Life Documentary
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