The Dream and Lie of Franco, I

This work by Pablo Picasso is a scathing condemnation of the Fascist General Francisco Franco, who led the fight against Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Franco appears as a grotesque monster, hacking away at art and classical ideals, riding on a pig, and parading as a woman. Picasso’s lively linework was probably transferred from a drawing and then etched into the surface of a printing plate. The fields of gray—produced by a technique called aquatint—give the work a forceful, graphic quality. Originally, each image on this sheet was to be cut and sold separately to raise money for the Spanish Republican cause.