This portrait is relevant because Picasso’s use of the style of linocut printmaking coincides with his introduction to Jacqueline Rogue in the early 1950’s.
Picasso made over 400 individual portraits of Jacqueline Roque, his second wife and muse. They were married in 1955, following the death of his first wife. Purportedly Picasso pursued Jacqueline with a rose each day until she agreed to date him six months later. His portraits of her are characterized by an exaggerated neck and feline face distortions of Roque’s features. As indicative of this piece, her dark eyes and high arching eyebrows, high cheekbones and classical profile would eventually become familiar symbols in his later paintings. Jacqueline’s beauty is said to have been the inspiration for many of his most famous works including The Women of Algiers.