Small quarto (28 × 22.3 cm), bound in Jansenist-style sand-colored calf, smooth spine with the author and illustrator stamped in gold in an East-Asian style, caramel velvet-skin doublures and endpapers, with slipcase and chemise (Creuzevault).
Dated 1938, this long poem is taken from the exhibition catalogue of works by Pablo Picasso at the Louis Carré Gallery in 1945. The catalogue, titled Picasso libre, 21 peintures, 1940–1945, brings together black-and-white reproductions of Picasso’s works, accompanied by texts selected by Paul Éluard, including this poem titled “To Pablo Picasso”, which appears on pages 21 to 28.
In the present volume, only the text of the poem has been preserved; the sheet with the reproductions (pp. 23–24) has been replaced with the sheet corresponding to pages 29–30.

Aside from two leaves previously sold at Artcurial (lots no. 1 and 2, sale of December 6, 2011), namely the colophon leaf and the title leaf of this work, it has not been possible to locate the other parts of this catalogue, which were likely also illuminated.
The authenticity of these drawings has been confirmed by the Picasso Administration, which issued a certificate for this volume.

This copy is perfectly preserved in a Jansenist binding by Henri Creuzevault (not recorded in the six volumes by Colette Creuzevault, where Jansenist bindings are not listed).