Minotaure aveugle guidé par une fillette I, from: La Suite Vollard

Lots 935 and 936 belong to a sequence of four works in Picasso’s Suite Vollard exploring the theme of the blind Minotaur. While the central motif remains constant—the Minotaur guided by a young girl observed by fishermen and a sailor—subtle changes alter the narrative. In lot 935, the girl, whose features identify her as Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, gently leads the Minotaur while holding flowers, a symbol of sensuality. She is framed by an arch besides which, upside-down, hangs the scratched image of violent murder. This inset scene, engraved earlier in 1934 for a book by Benjamin Péret, refers to Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Marat, to which Picasso added the figure of Marat's assassin, Charlotte Corday. Brigitte Baer suggested that the figure of Marat represents Marie-Thérèse, while the knife-wielding Corday symbolizes Picasso’s wife Olga Khokhlova. In lot 936, the girl strides forward holding a white dove, a symbol both of purity and peace. Despite the Minotaur’s size, her confident lead suggests a shift in power, and the inclusion of the dove perhaps Picasso’s hope for a gentler outcome to their relationship, which would however end shortly after.