Pablo Picasso

Circus Artist and Child

1905

© Succession Picasso/DACS 2019

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Not on display

Artist: Pablo Picasso 1881–1973
Original title: Artiste de cirque et enfant
Medium: Ink and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 168 x 105 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by Mrs A.F. Kessler 1983
Reference: T03571

Catalogue entry

T03571 Circus Artist and Child 1905

Indian ink and watercolour on paper 6 5/8 × 4 1/8 (168 × 105)
Not inscribed
Bequeathed by Mrs A.F. Kessler 1983
Prov: C. Frank Stoop; Mrs Kessler 1933
Exh: The Kessler Collection, Wildenstein Gallery, October–November 1948 (23, as ‘The Circus Artist’); The Kessler Bequest, Tate Gallery, February–April 1984 (not numbered, repr.)
Lit: Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille, Picasso 1900–1906: Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint, Neuchâtel, 1966, no.D.XII. 8, p.269, repr. as ‘Artiste de Cirque et Enfant’ Paris 1905; Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1970, XXII, no.224, repr. p.81 as ‘Saltimbanque au Diadème, allaitant son Bébé’ 1905

The girl, wearing a tiara and dancing shoes, and feeding her baby, appears to be a circus artist. Picasso made many drawings and paintings of the private life of circus folk at this period. This drawing was probably done from life on the page of a sketchbook, and is not related to any other known work.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1986