NEW YORK.- Christie’s offers a once in a lifetime opportunity for Picasso fans, collectors and connoisseurs to bid on nearly 600 Picasso lithographs, which are offered at auction without reserve.

From the workshop of Fernand Mourlot, the renowned printer and Picasso’s mentor in the medium, many of these printer’s proofs bear Fernand Mourlot’s initials and the number from his catalogue raisonné of the artist’s prints.

Highlights include four states of the legendary Bull series and eleven states of Two Nude Women, showing how Picasso gradually changed the images from figural to increasingly abstract compositions. Also on offer, in multiple states, are David and Bathsheba and Armchair Woman.

Portraits of Picasso’s lovers, Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque, further enhance the sale as well as numerous still lives, poster designs and frontispieces.

This large collection of nearly 600 lithographic proofs offers an unprecedented opportunity to learn about Picasso as a printmaker—and the sale has no reserves.

Involved with printmaking as early as 1904, Picasso experimented with lithographs from 1919 onwards. However, he did not make it a focus of his graphic work until the winter of 1945, when he went to work alongside the master lithographers at the Imprimerie Mourlot on the rue de Chabrol.

The family’s involvement with printing goes back to François Mourlot, who founded a wallpaper business in the early 19th century. His son Jules took the workshop in another direction, printing advertising posters. Jules founded the Imprimerie Mourlot in 1852 and moved the presses to the rue de Chabrol in 1914.

In 1921 his two sons, Georges and Fernand, inherited the workshop—Georges ran the business side, Fernand the production. By 1945 every major printmaker in Paris was working with Fernand Mourlot.

In Picasso’s case, the team also included printers Gaston Tutin and Jean Celestin (’Pere Tutin’ and ’Tintin’), proofers and Henri Deschamps the chromist in charge of the inks. They worked with Picasso taking proofs from the stones and zinc plates. The proofs were pulled in small numbers and used as a guide by the artist for further changes.

The April sale at Christie’s New York is an almost complete run of these proofs, which, although not signed by Picasso, are in most cases annotated by Mourlot or other workshop members.

The themes of the lithographs are central to the artist’s oeuvre.

There are portraits of women, most notably Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque, still lifes, genre, explorations of earlier artists’ works and styles and contemporary interpretations of the dove as a symbol of peace.

The many proofs allow an in-depth examination of the artist’s techniques in lithography, showing his tireless exploration of the medium. Most are in black alone—but of particular luminosity (enhanced by the addition of garlic to the ink, according to chromist Deschamps)—although there are also some exceptional color prints such as the Woman in an armchair (gray background).

In many cases proofs and final states are offered as combined lots to show the changes achieved during the print-making process. Two nude women for example includes 12 proofs.

In other cases, prints that stand alone as finished works of art are to be sold singly.

With estimates as low as $500, and the consignor’s decision to sell at no reserve, the possibility of purchasing one of these exceptional proofs is open to everyone.