Pablo Picasso

Gertrude Stein (acquired directly from the artist)
Georges E. Seligmann
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, November 4, 1982, Lot 12
Private Collection, London
PaceWildenstein Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Los Angeles (acquired from the above)

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Four Americans in Paris, The Collection of Gertrude Stein and Her Family, 1970-71, illustrated in the catalogue
Monte Carlo, Artis Monte-Carlo S.A.M., Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, 1987

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, supplément à volumes 1 à 5, vol. VI, Paris, 1954, no. 690, illustrated pl. 84
E.A. Carmean, Jr., Picasso, The Saltimbanques, Washington, D.C., 1980

Executed on cream wove paper and hinged to mount at upper corners on verso. Faint mat stain along perimeter, widest along upper and left edges of the sheet. Few minor scuffs and stains around edges. On the verso: remnants of tape along the lower center edge and lower right corner. Watermark of paper manufacturer visible. While faintly stained, majority of sheet (including image) is well preserved; line is very strong. Overall in excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present work was executed at the genesis of Picasso's Rose Period. While he had yet to achieve widespread recognition, by 1905 Picasso was beginning to become lauded in critical circles.  On Picasso's exhibition in the Galeries Serrurier, Apollinaire wrote, "more than all the poets, sculptors, and the other painters, this Spaniard scathes us like a sudden chill.  His meditations are laid bare in the silence. He comes from afar, from the opulence of composition and brutal decoration of the Spaniards of the seventeenth century" (Marilyn McCully, ed., Picasso, The Early Years, 1892-1906, Washington, 1997, p. 45).

 

During Picasso's first years in Paris, it was common to see traveling performers in the city streets.  Marilyn McCully notes that harlequins and other circus members were frequently depicted by cartoonists and poster artist in the early twentieth century, with the trope of the harlequin also found in works by Daumier and Degas (Marilyn McCully, ed., Picasso in Paris, 1900-1907, London, 2011, p. 142).  The present work is closely related to the masterpiece of Picasso's Rose Period, Famille des Saltimbanques, whose subject matter and composition suggest that Famille des Harlequins may have been a preparatory study for the final oil. In Famille des Saltimbanques, Picasso depicts himself as a member of the troupe, a choice that signals the empathy the artist seems to have felt for the ubiquitous street performers of Paris.  Famille des Harlequins equally conveys this interest and empathy, affirming Picasso's affinity for la vie bohème in the first decade of the twentieth century. 

 

Fig. 1 Pablo Picasso, Famille des Saltimbanques, oil on canvas, 1905, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.