Picasso is arguably the most influential artist who ever lived. A restless innovator and virtuoso of any artistic technique that he chose to adopt, he was also a master of work on paper. For Picasso, paper was not just a medium on which to work but a source of inspiration in itself, whether he was tearing up found scraps into charming little figures, working at the etching plate or repurposing reams of unpromising brown wrapping paper into marvellous imaginary portraits. Regardless of the intrinsic value of the medium, he applied the same focus to the subject.

Picasso made prints throughout his life: the first in 1899, whilst still a teenager, and the last in 1972 when he was 90 years old. Over the course of his career he made nearly 2,400 prints, using etching, lithography, aquatint and linocut, among other techniques. His partnership with the renowned Parisian lithography studio Atelier Mourlot saw nearly 400 original artworks produced over two decades from 1945. Many of these works feature amongst the most popular and iconic of his images, such as the Dove of Peace.