Picasso made two prints in this format—three rows of three scenes—beginning January 8, 1937, that together form an eighteen-scene narrative. This print is the second of the two. Since Picasso worked on the images from left to right, the etched versions read from right to left. In the upper right, the Facist general Franco is depicted as a grinning monstrous figure, devouring the innards of his own horse, which he has just killed; the next two scenes show the results of battle; and in the next two, Franco is in combat with an angry bull, symbolizing Spain. The last four scenes were added on June 7; meanwhile, the Basque town of Guernica was leveled by bombs, and Picasso painted his famous mural protesting that atrocity. Three of the last four scenes of this print relate to his studies for that painting.

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