Image Details

Artists Rights Society

Dark and brooding, the 1935 etching Blind Minotaur Being Led by a Young Girl at Night is one of Picasso’s most cryptic minotaur works. Picasso created four separate versions of this scene, all incorporating the figures of two sailors (right), an enigmatic spectator (left) and the helpless minotaur being guided by a small girl (center), but the significance of these characters remains unclear. Some scholars have suggested that it is a deeply personal allegory of the artist’s own search for truth. The young girl leading the minotaur was probably modeled on one of Picasso’s many lovers.