Description

This poster has not been reproduced. Its main motif, the drawing in Indian ink, was reproduced on the poster published for the exhibition held at the Musée Reattu in Arles between 6 July and 2 September 1957.

This work was produced a few months after the completion of Guernica, when he had almost finished the later works related to the theme of the “Weeping Woman”, the last version of which was completed on 26 October. With his extraordinary versatility, Picasso knew how to use new means of expression and new styles in this drawing.

Circus Horse is a composition in which Picasso presents a man, the tamer, who could be Picasso himself, looking angrily at the audience. With the exception of the face of Marie-Thérèse Walter, the rest of the faces have been punished with a brutal expression. The tamer seems to be holding a spirited horse tightly in the circus ring. The horse is positioned in such a way that we can see its hindquarters, adorned with a feather, as well as its head with its expressive eyes.

After this, Picasso made another similar drawing in September 1939, almost two years later, this time with two horses and using only India ink.