Pablo Picasso Artwork Details

 

 

Detailed Description

Reference: Bloch 9 , Baer 11
Edition: The original edition , made after aciding the plate in 1913, consisted of 250 proofs on Van Gelder paper and 27 or 29 proofs on vierge du Japon paper. Beir notes that the plate was cancelled in 1913 and that an edition of proofs was pulled from this by Fort at that time. We believe our piece to be of more modern origin then those pieces. Beir goes on to say that the cancelled plate for this piece was, for some time, in the collection of Ambroise Vollard, the celebrated Parisian Art Dealer.
Note 3: This is part of a series of etchings known as the Salimbanques which consisted of a group of works all relating to the same theme. Picasso was a very young man when he completed these but they are considered to be amongst the very best he ever made. The name of the series comes from the Italian words saltare, meaning "to leap," and banco, "bench," which refers to the stage on which the acrobats usually performed. Saltimbanques were the lowest order of acrobats; Picasso pictured them as vagabonds with simple props in an empty, desert like landscape. He was familiar with earlier representations of clowns and harlequins from eighteenth-century art, which frequently included figures from the commedia dell'arte, a popular theatrical form featuring stock characters and their antics. These characters played significant roles in the paintings of such artists as Tiepolo, the Le Nain, and Watteau. Picasso was particularly drawn to the circus people, many of whom were his Spanish countrymen. Their agility and pursuit of the art of illusion delighted him, and their gypsy like lives touched the artist, who himself searched for new horizons. Picasso identified most closely with the clowns, those performers who masked their true selves with costumes and makeup. In fact, Picasso portrayed himself as the Harlequin in a diamond-patterned costume in “The Family of Saltimbanques.” The dancers on our etching on the horse are a well known image
Published by: Ambroise Vollard, 1913
Printed by: Mourlot Freres, Paris
Size: Paper size : 26.5 x 32.5 cms