Three musicians sit as flat, brightly colored, abstract shapes in a shallow, boxlike room. To the left is a clarinet player, in the middle a guitar player, and on the right is a singer holding sheets of music. All three are dressed as familiar figures amongst Picasso’s oeuvre: Pierrot, wearing a blue and white suit, Harlequin, in an orange and yellow diamond-patterned costume, and a friar in a black robe. Additionally, a table with a pipe and other objects stands. A dog, whose stomach, legs, and tail peep out behind Pierrot, is posed. Like the boxy brown stage on which the figures are placed, every aspect of this painting is made up of flat shapes. The light brown floor extends towards the left rather than the right. Framing the picture, the floor and the flat walls cause the room to appear lopsided, but the musicians balance it out through their steady posture. Each figure makes music in harmony; it is difficult is distinguish where one musician starts and another stops due to the shapes that create them intersecting and overlapping, as if they were paper cutouts (perhaps Picasso’s collage skills are intersecting into his other forms of art). The subject, the musicians, are transformed into a sequence of planes, lines, and arcs: thus, becoming a perfect example of Picasso’s signature Cubist style.

SKU: 6960
Creator: Pablo Picasso
Original Medium: Nib Pen and Brown Ink on Fine Vellum Paper
Original Size: 8 3/8 x 5 1/4 in
Location: Musée National Picasso
© Succession Picasso 2010 – Gestion droits d’auteur