Jacques Lipchitz

Robert Carlin Galleries, Philadelphia (acquired from the artist)

Acquired from the above by the present owners on October 16, 1959

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Collects 20th Century, 1963

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jacques Lipchitz and Philadelphia, 2004

Lipchitz (exhibition catalogue), Marlborough-Gerson Galleries, Inc., New York, 1977, no. 24, illustration of another cast p. 9

Jacques Lipchitz, A Life in Sculpture (exhibition catalogue), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1989, fig. 13, illustration of another cast p. 17

Alan G. Wilkinson, The Sculpture of Jacques Lipchitz, A Catalogue Raisonné, Volume One, The Paris Years, 1910-1940, New York, 1996, no. 90, illustration of another cast p. 52

Excellent condition.
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This full-length sculpture of a standing harlequin playing a clarinet was conceived in 1919, ten years after Lipchitz's arrival in Paris from Vilna in 1909.  He received a traditional training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julian, but early in his career displayed an interest in a wide range of sculptural styles, from classical to tribal. During his early years in Paris, Lipchitz met many of the leading figures of the Parisian avant-garde, who introduced him to new artistic interpretations, including the techniques of Cubism. 

By 1919, when he executed the stone version of Arlequin à la clarinette, Lipchitz had developed an attuned sense of spatial composition influenced largely by his study of the Cubist works of Picasso, Braque and Gris.  The artist was now able to translate effectively his two-dimensional conceptions into a three-dimensional form.  In the series of standing figures with musical instruments, Lipchitz utilized themes from the Commedia dell'arte that had become common currency in the work of Picasso, Gris and many of their contemporaries.  He referred to this interest in his autobiography: "One of the first sculptures made in 1919 was the Arlequin à l'accordéon.  It reflects my interest in eighteenth century paintings, particularly that of Watteau ... The Pierrots and harlequins were part of our general vocabulary, characters taken from the Commedia dell'arte, particularly popular in the eighteenth century.  We may have been attracted to them originally because of their gay traditional costumes, involving many different colored areas" (Jacques Lipchitz, My Life in Sculpture, New York, 1972, p. 58).                            
                                                             
This bronze cast of Arlequin à la clarinette was completed after Lipchitz moved to the United States in the 1940s.  It is one from an edition of seven bronze casts, another of which is currently in the Museum Folkwang in Essen.

Fig. 1, Photograph of Picasso's "French manager" from Parade, 1917