Les Saltimbanques (Acrobats)

Picasso’s images of harlequins, actors, and acrobats create a counterpoint to his sad and austere figures of the preceding Blue Period. In the “Circus” or “Rose” period, a melancholy grace replaces the jarring angularity of the earlier pictures, and though this period was short-lived, lasting only from 1905 to 1906, it was the transitional phase that ultimately led to Cubism. With precedents in Watteau, Toulouse-Lautrec, Daumier, and Cézanne, Picasso readily identified with the harlequin figure from the commedia dell’arte. Born in Malaga, Spain, Picasso moved to Paris in 1901. The early years were hard ones, and it was not until around 1905 that there seemed to be an improvement in his circumstances. The circus figures relate to the influence of his homeland, the elongated bodies of Catalan Gothic sculpture, as well as references to Italian Mannerism. In Les Saltimbanques the figures, delicately drawn with the drypoint needle, emphasize the fragile relationships among the performers. It is as if each person were acting out his or her own personal tableau in preparation for the final performance. (From “A Handbook of the Collection: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,” 1998)