巴布羅 · 畢加索

伊曼紐爾·維朗克，巴黎（購自畫家）
私人收藏，法國（家族傳承自上述藏家；售出：倫敦蘇富比，1981年4月1日，拍品編號36）
私人收藏（售出：倫敦蘇富比，1984年6月26日，拍品編號21）
史丹利·J·斯格，倫敦（購自上述拍賣；售出：紐約蘇富比，1993年11月4日，拍品編號405）
購自上述拍賣

巴黎，夏龐蒂埃畫廊，〈巴黎〉，1944-45年，品號404（畫名《舞台上的舞者》）

日內瓦，藝術與歷史博物館，〈畢加索與西班牙-美國當代藝術〉，1956年，品號9，圖錄載圖（畫名《舞台上的舞者》）

紐約，現代藝術博物館，〈巴布羅·畢加索回顧展〉，1980年，品號不詳，圖錄載圖

伯恩，藝術博物館，〈青年畢加索：早期作品與藍色時期〉，1984年，品號107，圖錄載彩圖

皮耶·戴及喬治·布達耶，《畢加索1900-1906年：油畫專題目錄》，納沙泰爾，1966年，品號II.23，126頁載圖

道格拉斯·庫珀，《畢加索劇場》，紐約，1968年，品號19，載圖，頁碼不詳

克里斯蒂安·澤爾沃斯，《巴布羅·畢加索》，巴黎，1969年，第XXI冊，品號224，圖版87載圖（畫名《小丑與舞者》）

何塞普·帕勞·伊·法夫雷，《畢加索：早期1881-1907年》，巴塞隆納，1981年，品號507，209頁載彩圖（畫名《小丑與柯倫萍》）

約翰·理查德森，《畢加索一生》，紐約，1991年，第I冊，164頁載圖

瑪莉蓮·麥卡利，《畢加索：私人收藏》，倫敦，1993年，22-24頁，23頁載彩圖

卡斯滕·彼得·瓦恩克及英戈·F·瓦爾特，《巴布羅·畢加索1881-1973年》，科隆，1994年，第I冊，59頁載彩圖

《畢加索與四隻貓咖啡館：早年在世紀之交的巴塞羅那》（展覽圖錄），畢加索博物館，巴塞羅那，1995-96年，16頁載彩圖

布麗吉特·莉亞、克里絲汀·皮奧及瑪莉·羅爾·貝爾納達克，《終極畢加索》，馬德里，2000年，品號39，36頁載彩圖

《從塞尚到畢加索：前衛藝術的支持者安博瓦·沃拉爾》（展覽圖錄），大都會藝術博物館，紐約；芝加哥美術館，芝加哥；奧塞博物館，巴黎，2006-07年，385頁載彩圖

瑪莉蓮·麥卡利，《畢加索在巴黎1900-1907年：噬火》（展覽圖錄），梵谷博物館，阿姆斯特丹；畢加索博物館，巴塞羅那，2011年，21頁載彩圖

Pierrot et danseuse (La Danseuse bleue) is one of the very few oils that Picasso completed on his first trip to Paris in the last months of 1900. Working as an artist and illustrator in Madrid, Picasso realized that he needed to establish a foothold in the Parisian art world in order to advance his career; he arrived in Paris in September 1900 with his friend Carlos Casagemas and stayed for three months. During this time he visited the Louvre and the Luxembourg and made the rounds of the commercial galleries including Durand-Ruel, Bernheim-Jeune and Ambroise Vollard. Picasso was attracted to the works of contemporary illustrators such as Toulouse-Lautrec, who captured the excitement of the city in his swiftly executed drawings of the cabaret. Picasso attended the Universal Exhibition several times during the weeks it was on view, first to see his own work, which he criticized for being hung too high, and then returned to see the paintings of David, Corot and Manet.

The first works Picasso sold in Paris were handled through Pere Mañach and Berthe Weill. Mañach introduced Picasso to Emmanuel Virenque, who purchased Pierrot et danseuse (La Danseuse bleue) shortly after its creation. Virenque, the Spanish Consul in Paris, would, the following year, go on to purchase Au Moulin Rouge (Le Divan japonais). Of the six oils Picasso created during his first visit to Paris, only La Danseuse bleue (Pierrot et danseuse) and Le Moulin de la Galette (Zervos, vol. I, no. 41; Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York) depicted the excitement of the French capital’s nightlife.

For the nineteen year old Picasso, the bars, cafes and cabarets of Paris, which provided a stage for theatrical performances, dance and song, proved irresistible. "Picasso's interest in the theater as a source of paintable subject," art historian Douglas Cooper states, "showed itself early: to be exact, in a group of paintings executed in Barcelona, Paris and Madrid between the ages of eighteen and twenty.... Picasso seems to have enjoyed the spectacle, whatever it was, for its own sake and to have relished the gay, excited atmosphere of these places of public entertainment, where he gained many insights into human nature and could find relief from the drabness of his own impoverished existence. Nevertheless, Picasso was no mere passive observer we can see from the liveliness, the intensity and the acute observation of the movements and facial expressions of the performers, which characterize these works" (D. Cooper, Op. cit., pp. 13-14).

In this particular canvas, two of the beloved characters from the Commedia dell'Arte interact on the stage - the sad clown Pierrot and his unfaithful wife Columbine, who preferred the company of the Harlequin. Scenes from the Commedia dell'Arte were perennial favorites for European artists since the mid-1500s. Antoine Watteau, Georges Seurat and Paul Cézanne sensitively rendered these characters in a variety of styles, while Picasso himself would use particular figures from the Commedia throughout his career from Rose period imagery to a more cubist Harelquin of 1909 and various iterations in the decades that followed. Like his references to Mythology, theatrical interpretation from the Commedia dell'Arte to Ubu Roi would emerge in new stylistic endeavors. Pierrot et danseuse (La Danseuse bleue) is one of the first and most dazzling of his Commedia dell'Arte scenes.