PICASSO, Pablo
 
Seated Saltimbanque; fine collotype printed for Chroniques du Jour, Paris in 1930.
 
Description
 
Collotype on velin paper, from the rare limited edition suite printed in 1930. In fine condition and without fading. Paper bright and clean throughout.
The original painting was executed during Picasso’s Neoclassical period, often referred to as his ‘return to order’. This phase followed his radical Cubist innovations and is characterized by a shift back to more traditional, human figures. Art historians note that the model’s pose is a direct, deliberate homage to the famous 1832 portrait Monsieur Bertin by the French master Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
Although the title frames the figure as an anonymous street circus acrobat (saltimbanque), the model was actually a painter named Jacinto Salvadó, a close Spanish friend of Picasso living in Paris. Picasso dressed his friend in an Harlequin costume that he had originally acquired from Jean Cocteau.
Framed and glazed with UV resistant art glass; mount elevated over black.
Sheet, 27.9x22.3cm; external, 43.1x32.9cm.