Picasso’s Harlequin

The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) began his artistic career in France producing paintings in somber hues that have been categorized as part of his Rose and Blue Periods, before embarking upon his collaboration with Georges Braque to develop Cubism as a new visual language and one of the first truly original art movements of the twentieth century. The melancholic figure of the harlequin, a stock character derived from the comedia del arte, depicted in somber colors of rose and blue, that first appeared in this early work, has its roots in Symbolism, the movement that emerged at the fin de siècle when Picasso began his career. This study examines the figure of the harlequin, as it was retained for both the analytic and synthetic phases of Cubism, to emphasize Picasso’s affinity for Symbolism rather than his full scale rejection of it as suggested by the prevailing view of Picasso as champion of the avant-garde. This reassessment of Picasso’s methods and his key work is offered to more fully understand the consequences of the Symbolist movement for the development of modern art.