The Convent (Le Couvent) (plate, folio 41) from Saint Matorel

The Convent (Le Couvent) (plate, folio 41) from Saint Matorel is an early and foundational graphic work by Pablo Picasso, created in 1910 and published the following year. This piece is an etching, classified as an Illustrated Book, drawn from a series of four prints that accompanied the text by French poet Max Jacob. The set of prints, which utilized both standard etching and drypoint techniques, marks Picasso’s deep engagement with the visual consequences of Analytic Cubism and the expanding genre of the livre d’artiste.

As a Spanish artist working centrally in the Parisian modern movement, Picasso was pioneering the fragmentation of form when he produced this plate for Jacob's complex, mystical text, Saint Matorel. This collaboration resulted in one of the first major examples of a truly Cubist illustrated book. The specific year 1910, published 1911, places the work within the most challenging and visually austere phase of the movement.

The etching exhibits the severely fragmented planes and interlocking, geometric structures characteristic of Analytical Cubism, prioritizing the depiction of structure and simultaneous viewpoints over traditional naturalism. Picasso masterfully utilized the etching medium, employing fine, disciplined lines and dense cross-hatching to build up volume and suggest light. This approach allowed the artist to translate the complex spatial dynamics of Cubism into reproducible prints, demonstrating that the principles of formal reduction were highly adaptable across media beyond oil paint. The meticulous detail required for these early prints offers significant insight into the artist’s methodology during this critical period. This historically important work, central to the history of modern prints, is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).