Acrobat and Young Harlequin
Pablo Picasso
PABLO PICASSO, 1905. OIL ON CANVAS.
As the circus in Montmatre, Paris, closed for the night, Picasso would stay behind and converse late into the night with the performers. They existed in these hours in a kind of netherworld, a liminal space between the cosmopolitan reality outside and the escapist spectacle that had just been. It was this bridge-like state between two worlds that drew the young Picasso to them, finding refuge, solace, and solidarity as he was navigating a similar transition. Painted at the very end of his ‘Blue Period’, characteristic by the morose subjects and blue hues, and as he began to enter his ‘Rose Period which was more optimistic and livelier and ultimately brought him his first taste of the fame and success that would follow, this work is one of ambiguity. The two performers stare out listlessly, the dimensionless background behind fades into them as they stand, with the suggestion of applause yet it brings them neither joy nor sadness – instead they exist between the two.