La toilette de la mère (Mother dressing) is one of a trio of charming and wistful images featuring a saltimbanque couple with a baby. Here, the harlequin – identifiable by his bicorn hat and often interpreted as a proxy for Picasso himself – observes his naked lover combing her hair, while holding their baby. Picasso’s lover Madeleine became pregnant in 1904, and it is thought that the prospect of fatherhood, though unrealised at the time, might have put the artist in a more reflective state of mind.

This particular impression was made in 1913, almost a decade after the first, commercially unsuccessful print run of the saltimbanque images. Picasso’s work had gained greater renown in the interim and, in 1911, the influential art dealer Ambroise Vollard acquired 15 etched plates from the artist and had them steel-faced to fortify them for a more substantial edition. He enlisted printer Louis Fort for an edition of 27 or 29 (the exact number is unknown) on Japon paper – from which this impression hails – and a subsequent, larger edition of 250 on Van Gelder Zonen wove paper. Vollard collectively titled the unnamed etchings and drypoints ‘La Suite des Saltimbanques’ (‘suite of acrobats’), publishing them as a formally issued portfolio. It was only following this that these works became widely known and collectable.