Sueño y Mentira de Franco (Dream and Lie of Franco),

1937

Prompted by the onset of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, Picasso began work the next January on this suite of etchings, which use caricature and satire to protest atrocities committed by General Francisco Franco. Franco appears throughout the prints as a malevolent demon with an insatiable appetite for violence. Structured like a comic strip, the etchings must be read from right to left, the result of an inversion that occurred in the printing of the plates and which Picasso chose not to correct, using this reversal to express the chaos of war. Along with the visual narrative, the artist included a print of a nonsensical, handwritten stream of consciousness. Picasso donated the proceeds from sales of these prints to Franco’s opposition, Spain’s Republican government.