From 1970 to 1972, when he was in his nineties, Picasso produced his last major graphic work - the "Suite de 156 gravures", demonstrating that, even at the end of his life, Picasso was still inhabited by the fire of creation and inspiration. The great sources of inspiration in Picasso's career are repeated in this series: the circus and funfair, mythological monsters, women - in short, all the great avatars of Picasso's creation.

Aware of his own posterity, Picasso always plays with the great figures of art history. In the Suite de 156, as in the Suite Vollard decades before, Picasso echoes his elders, Rembrandt and Degas in particular. In the Suite, a special place is given to the fantasy of the Maison Tellier, the fictional brothel in Maupassant's story. Ambroise Vollard - the great publisher of Picasso's prints - had published a version of the story illustrated by Edgar Degas. In his series within a series, Picasso features Degas himself, the "lavaliered painter", painting in the setting of the Maison Tellier. This play recalls the Raphael and Fornarina plates, or even the appearance of Rembrandt in certain plates of the Suite Vollard.

Produced without any preparatory drawings, copperplate engraving remained for Picasso a place of experimentation and daring. At the end of his career, Picasso was a master of etching techniques, and his technical prowess is demonstrated in this plate: the artist works for several days, without any trial proofs, cutting almost obsessively to the point where the cuts can no longer hold the ink. The final result, on a large board, is baroque in its complexity.