This profile is thought to be one of several 'Rose'-period portraits Picasso made of his model, Madeleine, who became his lover after his arrival in Paris in 1904. The work’s ethereal quality situates it in the artist's Rose period, during which Picasso’s compositions became more dreamlike and allegorical; while its Neo-Classical style suggests the influence of the celebrated French nineteenth-century painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whose work Picasso would have encountered in Paris. Taking inspiration from Ingres’s portraits of aristocrats, he imbues the young ingénue with a nobility and dignity that elevates her beyond the social status she would have had in Paris at the time.

Madeleine’s graceful posture and delicate features lend themselves perfectly to the refined use of drypoint, with the clarity of line here a testament to Picasso’s skill as a draughtsman and to his rapidly acquired command of the medium. Old plates were often scraped down and recycled, resulting in underlying marks appearing – at times, dramatically – throughout the series, offering valuable insights into the process and the conditions in which the works were made.