Pablo Picasso (1881 Malaga - 1973 Mougins) (F) 'Bathseba' (Bethsabée), aquatint etching in colours on BFK Rives, ca. 1960, sheet size 45 cm x 56 cm, plate size 26 cm x 36.8 cm, numbered 29/300, signed, with drystamp of 'Atelier Crommelynck Paris', slightly cockled, the upper edge slightly creased, the margins of the sheet with some minor staining, slight foxing, with purchase receiptProvenance: Galerie Brusberg; private collection, HanoverLiterature: Online Picasso Project, Sam Housten State University, OPP 66:017"Every painter thinks of himself as Rembrandt." (Pablo Picasso, in: Gilot, Francoise/Lake, Carlton, Life with Picasso, 1964, p. 51)The depiction, based on a story from the Old Testament, shows the naked Bathsheba sitting on a bed. In her hand she holds King David's letter in which he professes his love and intention to marry her. A similar drawing to the Bathsheba motif titled "Seated Nude and Another Figure" from 1963 already shows a preparatory preoccupation with the subject. In the composition, Picasso refers to the Bathsheba painting by Rembrandt, whose oeuvre was one of his sources of inspiration. In his studio in Mougins, he had numerous materials on Rembrandt, including the multi-volume work of Otto Benesch. The aquatint etching was published in a numbered edition of 300 copies by the Paris printing house Crommelynck, which had set up a printing workshop in Mougins in 1963 especially to be able to print Picasso's famous 347 series directly on the spot.