Picasso's La Celestina series

Part of the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death and the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic presence between Canada and Spain, this exhibition presents the complete existing collection of the “Celestina” series, the last engravings made by Picasso.

The exhibition is dedicated to a traditional character in Spanish literature since the Middle Ages, the alcahueta, an elderly woman who acted as a broker of love affairs between men and women when social and amorous relations were strictly conditioned by prejudices and strict social, cultural and religious norms and standards.

This literary character reached its culmination at the end of the 15th century, in 1499, with the publication for the first time of the work Comedia de Calisto y Melibea by the Spanish writer Fernando de Rojas, a tragicomedy better known as La Celestina after the name of the protagonist.

Picasso depicted this literary character throughout his life from an early age –the first time in 1901– and produced the well-known series 347 in 1968, from which he extracted 66 engravings two years before his death.