Three Studies of an Acrobat

Pablo Picasso

1905 · Ink on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

Picasso used the acrobat as Degas used the dancer: to understand the architecture of the human figure and the mechanics of support and balance. Here, with just a few deft marks of a nibbed pen, Picasso jotted his impressions of a circus performer balancing on one hand while rotating her hips and splayed legs. He made three sequential, alternative views of the same figure, as if he were moving around her while drawing. More likely, however, he drew from memory in his studio, playing back in his mind's eye the scene he had studied so intently.

Artist

Pablo Picasso

Date

1905

Medium

Ink on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Bequest of Gregoire Tarnopol, 1979, and Gift of Alexander Tarnopol, 1980