After Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973): Harlequin on Horseback

Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973).Harlequin on Horseback.color offset lithograph on paper.Sight: 23 x 17 3/4 in. (58.4 x 45.1 cm.), Frame: 33 1/2 x 28 1/2 in. (85.1 x 72.4 cm.).
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Between 1904 and 1906, Picasso’s style as a figurative painter shifted. As he became more concerned with the formal elements of his compositions, his subjects began to represent generic types of people rather than particular individuals. Picasso frequently portrayed the character of the harlequin in his Rose Period and later phases throughout his long career. In Jester on Horseback, this staple comic figure from the commedia dell’arte is between performances—out of character, his pantomimed joviality slackens into a vacant regard and listless posture. The commedia dell’arte was a form of Italian theater, which flourished throughout Europe beginning in the 16th century and featured recurrent stock characters. The stark pink and red colors of the jester’s costume and the orange hues of the saddle and background are also characteristic of Picasso’s Rose Period. These tones dominate the image and contrast distinctly with the diluted grays that shade his steed. While Picasso depicts the horse, which extends horizontally across the composition with naturalistic detail, he renders its rider with simple brushstrokes that exaggerate the verticality of his distended body. The contrast between classical figuration and direct expressionism seems to blend the tragic and the comic, underlining the divergent concerns of the human and the animal.