Elsa Schiaparelli said that her favorite painting was Birds in a Cage by Pablo Picasso. It was one of the centerpieces of her personal art collection.

She placed it as the frontispiece of the American edition of her autobiography, Shocking Life, where one can read the following description: "There is a cage. Below it, on a green cloth, are playing cards. Inside the cage, there is a poor white dove gazing sadly at the shiny pink apple; outside the cage, a black bird, irritated and flapping its wings, defies the sky."

Friends who were well aware of Elsa's dual nature believed that this painting could be a metaphorical portrait of her. This duality is reflected in her autobiography, where she alternates between the first and third person when speaking about herself.