Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Monday, September 1, 2008

Pablo Picasso's "The Old Guitarist"

Saturday was Russ and my anniversary--40 years since our first date! He and Tommy and Joey were still in Chicago from the funeral, so we all headed to Millennium Park for a morning in the city, and to the Chicago Art Institute for a bit. And they had a splendid reprint of Picasso's "The Old Guitarist," one of my favorite paintings since when we were dating, so Russ bought it for me for our anniversary. It looks like this:

I already had a smaller nice poster of that painting, but it doesn't look at all the same--it's duller, with some markings as if paint had flaked off:
So my question is, was the poster made from the painting before a restoration, after which the new print was made? I don't know how to find out. Anyone know?