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拍品專文
Rendered in fine lines of India ink and gradient swaths of graphite, this poignant drawing bears quiet witness to a moment of profound evolution in Pablo Picasso’s oeuvre. Le Saltimbanque is one of a series of related pictures Picasso executed while working on the monumental composition known as Les Saltimbanques or Family of Saltimbanques (Zervos, vol. I, no. 285; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which occupied him from late 1904 to the fall of 1905. This painting constitutes the most important work of Picasso's "rose" period and, at the time of execution, was quickly acknowledged as the young artist’s first true masterpiece. Inscribed "vestido de rojo" in the upper left corner, the present saltimbanque is immediately identifiable as one of the key figures from the painting’s cast of characters.
Saltimbanques, also known as bateleurs or forains, were itinerant entertainers who combined acrobatics with juggling, and often performed with circus troupes, following a tradition that reached back to medieval times. Picasso, having early experienced the misery of poverty himself, long held a fascination for marginal elements in society who eked out a meager living. Picasso's interest in the lives of saltimbanques developed out of his friendship with poet Guillaume Apollinaire, whom the artist met in October 1904. Together with the artist's new lover Fernande Olivier, Apollinaire, the poet Max Jacob, and other painters who worked in the studios at the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, Picasso frequented the nearby Cirque Medrano. Fernande recalled that Picasso "would stay there all evening talking with the clowns. He admired them and had real sympathy for them" (quoted in T. Reff, "Harlequins, Saltimbanques, Clowns and Fools" in Artforum, vol. 10, October 1971, p. 33).
It is probably no coincidence that the Cirque Medrano performed in a pink tent, the color that came to characterize Picasso's pictures of this period. His close friendship with Apollinaire and deepening relationship with Fernande helped to dispel the darker, tragic outlook of the "blue" period, as he wholly embraced the levity and suffuse color characteristic of his “rose” period, to which the rare present drawing belongs.
Saltimbanques, also known as bateleurs or forains, were itinerant entertainers who combined acrobatics with juggling, and often performed with circus troupes, following a tradition that reached back to medieval times. Picasso, having early experienced the misery of poverty himself, long held a fascination for marginal elements in society who eked out a meager living. Picasso's interest in the lives of saltimbanques developed out of his friendship with poet Guillaume Apollinaire, whom the artist met in October 1904. Together with the artist's new lover Fernande Olivier, Apollinaire, the poet Max Jacob, and other painters who worked in the studios at the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, Picasso frequented the nearby Cirque Medrano. Fernande recalled that Picasso "would stay there all evening talking with the clowns. He admired them and had real sympathy for them" (quoted in T. Reff, "Harlequins, Saltimbanques, Clowns and Fools" in Artforum, vol. 10, October 1971, p. 33).
It is probably no coincidence that the Cirque Medrano performed in a pink tent, the color that came to characterize Picasso's pictures of this period. His close friendship with Apollinaire and deepening relationship with Fernande helped to dispel the darker, tragic outlook of the "blue" period, as he wholly embraced the levity and suffuse color characteristic of his “rose” period, to which the rare present drawing belongs.