As winter dawned in 1954, Spanish painter Pablo Picasso found himself at a crossroads between the future and the past. His friend, mentor and sometimes rival, Henri Matisse (1869-1954), a French painter many years his senior, had just died. Picasso no longer could depend on his rival to keep competitive blood flowing in his veins. Further, it made the 73 year old Master feel mortal. Color was sapped from his art. He began etching and printing in earnest. He began experimenting with pottery and ceramics. He then looked to the great masters of the past Ingres, Delacroix, Velasquez, and began painting variations on their classical themes of French and Spanish Romanticism.