‘This linocut of Jacqueline Roque (1927-1986) takes its title from the ruff around her neck typical of clothing worn at the time of the Medicis and during reign of the Spanish King Philip II (1527-1589). À la fraise refers to the way the collar surrounds the neck and is probably derived from an ordinary term in twelfth-century cuisine designating a means of stuffing or enveloping food. Two other linocuts also depict figures wearing ruffs – one is a portrait of a man (Baer 1320); the other, woman (Baer 1323). Picasso used the same period collar in portraits of Spanish friend Jaime Sabartés from 1938 and 1939 (Sabartés as a Gentleman of the Age of Philip II; Jaume , Sabartés with Ruff and Bonnet).
This linocut was pulled by the printer Hidalgo Arnéra. The overall blue-grey tones of the portrait result from repeated applications of cream-colored and black inks. A similar technique was employed in another linecut printed by Arnéra, The Broken Lance. The chocolate brown frame, created from a second linoleum block, was used in five other linocuts that were produced in Mougins in 1962 (Baer 1304, 1320, 1323, 1336, 1337) and later printed by Arnéra in the neigh-boring city of Vallauris. The frame is oriented horizontally in two examples, one of which depicts Jacqueline in a rocking chair. A portrait of Jacqueline begun in 1957 includes its own painted framed (Z.XVII.408, MPB 70.489) and may have inspired Picasso to incorporate a frame into these linocuts from 1962 and 1963. In another linocut Jacqueline from 1962 (Baer 1324), Picasso reworked one of his own paintings from 1957, Jacqueline as Carmen (Z.XVII.442), into a graphic work.
In 1963 the Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris commissioned a limited edition of fifty signed and numbered prints. At this time, approximately twenty unsigned artist´s proofs were also pulled. One, bearing a dedication to Sabartés, was donated to the Museu Picasso in Barcelona (Portrait of Jacqueline with a Ruff)’.
Text: GIMÉNEZ, Carmen (ed). Collection Museo Picasso Málaga. Malaga: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2003, pp. 537-538.
