Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Mr. and Mrs. Berelowitz
Waddington Galleries, London

Avignon, Palais des Papes, Pablo Picasso, 1969-1970, 1970, no. 13, illustrated

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, oeuvres de 1969, vol. XXXI, Paris, 1976, no. 348, illustrated p. 105
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. The Sixties III, 1968-1969, San Francisco, 2003, no. 69-353, illustrated p. 218
"Pablo Picasso: 1969-1970", Cahiers d'Art, Paris, 1970, no. 13
Rafael Albert, Picasso en Avignon, Paris, 1971, no. 121

Homme au casque et à l'épée is one of Picasso's largest and fully-worked drawings on the theme of the musketeer, a character that became his emblem at the end of his life. This subject first emerged in his production in 1966, the year after his ulcer surgery and during a lengthy period of convalescence when he wanted to prove to himself that his creative ability had not lost its luster. The musketeer was a subject that invigorated Picasso's artistic spirit during this fragile period of his life, compelling him to create a series of works that celebrated the gallantry of manhood in its prime. Inspiration from this theme was not without precedent: Matisse had found refuge in reading The Three Musketeers while recupera🔜ting from his illness in the south of France and enjoyed the escapism and flights of fancy that these stories offered. But it was Picasso who significantly incorporated the character into his painting, devoting a large proportion of his late work to this theme. He first produced a series of engravings and works on paper that explored this theme and, later, a variety of canvases of the musketeer, festooned in colorful regalia and brandishing ♚a symbol of his virility - a pipe, instrument, weapon, or even a paintbrush.

For Picasso, the musketeer signified the golden age of painting, and allowed h♎im to escape the limitations of contemporary subject matter and explore the spirit of a past age. Here was a character that embodied the courtly mannerisms of the Renaissance gentleman, and Picasso's rendering of this image was also his tribute to the work of two painters he had adored throughout his life - Velasquez and Rembrandt. Picasso had devoted a large portion of his production throughout the 1960s to the reinterpretation and investigation of the old masters, an experience in which he reaffirmed his connection to some of the greatest painters in the history of art. The musketeer♉ series was a continuation of this interest and began, according to his wife Jacqueline Roque, "when Picasso started to study Rembrandt,"  in the 1950s but his appreciation of other great figures of the Renaissance, including Shakespeare, also influenced the appearance of these characters.

Fig. 1  Rembrand van Rijn, Self-Portrait, Drypoint etching, 1634