Image: Image reproduction rights managed by Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; institutional source link provided
View source →Pablo Picasso, January 8, 1937
Medium
Aquatint and etching on copper in black on white wove paper, laid down on cream Japanese paper (chine collé)
Dimensions
Plate: 31.7 × 42.1 cm (12 1/2 × 16 5/8 in.); Sheet: 38 × 57 cm (15 × 22 1/2 in.)
Style
Wartime modernism
Decade
1930s
The official Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois record identifies The Dream and Lie of Franco (Plate I) as a Pablo Picasso etching, dated January 8, 1937, in Aquatint and etching on copper in black on white wove paper, laid down on cream Japanese paper (chine collé). This set of etchings (see also 1948.48.2) satirizes the murderous rule of General Francisco Franco (1892–1975) with images of violence, showing its protagonist as a monstrous beast. The figure of a weeping woman is visible in the middle-left quadrant of the sheet at right. Each of the 18 vignettes was reproduced on separate postcards, whose sale was intended to raise funds to support Spain’s anti-Fascist government. Some of the images relate to Picasso’s mural Guernica, which depicted the horrors endured by the inhabitants of a small Spanish town that was bombed by Franco’s Fascist forces in 1937.
The Dream and Lie of Franco (Plate I) is grouped under Wartime Period for gallery navigation using the date published by Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. This period label provides high-level art-historical orientation and does not supersede the primary collection record. The institutional credit line is: Anonymous gift.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →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.
Weeping Woman I
July 1, 1937 · same style · same era
Woman with Tambourine
1939, printed 1942, published 1943 · same style · same era
Dream and Lie of Franco I: (January 8, 1937)
1937 · same style · same era
Dream and Lie of Franco II: January 9, 1937
1937 · same style · same era
Dream and Lie of Franco
1937 · same style · same era
Seated Woman (recto); Study (verso)
November 28, 1941 (recto); 1941 (verso) · same style · same era
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