Description

Picasso juxtaposes two characters, a Harlequin and a Clown, whom he loved. Judging by their features, it would seem that Picasso identifies with the former.

It is a struggle between two spiritually and physically mismatched characters. The Harlequin seems to be the source of the discrepancy. He looks disapprovingly at the clown’s lack of concern, annoyed by his youth. The clown, on the other hand, has a different attitude: one of helplessness. His face shows that he cannot understand his companion’s aggression, whose incongruity provokes in the clown an irony reflected in his gaze. He seems to want to punish him for his youth and for his lack of suffering – suffering that Picasso himself suffered. For this reason, Picasso has given the Harlequin an aggressive colouring and has defined him in the Cubist style, taking advantage of the geometric shapes of his costume.

This composition recalls Picasso’s words: “In me, goodness and horror, drama and violence, reflections of two contemporary social experiences alternate; In my art there are also far-reaching mediations such as observations of the classical past. […] In my paintings there appear men who have been separated from Nature and Civilization and are at the mercy of dark and mysterious forces.”