Printer: Mourlot 

Dimensions: 76.2 x 50.2 cm

Condition: Very good

Frame: Unframed

Description: This 1971 poster reproduces Picasso’s Harlequin with Mirror of 1923, chosen to promote an exhibition at the Paris branch of the Knoedler Gallery. The original painting is now held at the Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid. The lithographic reproduction was prepared at Atelier Mourlot by master printer Henri Deschamps.

Often read as a self-portrait, the figure brings together elements of the circus and the Commedia dell’arte that Picasso returned to throughout his career. The hat refers to Harlequin, the acrobat’s costume, while the mask-like face recalls Pierrot, allowing the artist to conceal and rework his own identity within the image.

The solidity of the figure reflects the shift in Picasso’s work after his 1917 visit to Italy, when he turned towards a more classical approach. Even so, the composition avoids strict tradition, retaining the freedom and structure he had developed through Cubism.

Artist: Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, his extraordinary artistic genius made him the ‘rock star’ of the Modern Art world pioneering cubism, surrealism, expressionism and collage. Throughout his long career, he produced more than 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, theatre sets, and costumes. From the mid-1940s, he also worked with the Mourlot studios in Paris and created over 400 lithographs and exhibition posters. As well as Fernand Mourlot, Henri Deschamps was Picasso's favourite and most trusted master printer at the studio and they collaborated together from 1945 right up until Picasso’s death in 1973.