Plate 4, from: Le Cocu Magnifique

Le Cocu Magnifique is a farcical play written by Belgian dramatist Fernand Crommelynck about a jealous man, Bruno, who – because of this jealously – ends the play by losing his wife, Stella. Bruno is the kind of man who sees an enemy in the other sex; he seeks to control a woman, but he can never obtain this dominance because the female soul eludes him. It is because he cannot bear Stella's love that he will in the end be cuckolded. The play premiered in Paris in December 1920 and in 1968, Picasso produced a series of 12 etchings and aquatints based on the play's text. Picasso and Crommelynck knew each other for many years, and for some time Picasso had intended to illustrate the play. Picasso's dramatic and often explicit depiction of Crommelynck's story is well suited to the stark black and white media of aquatint and etching.