Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Between 1917 and 1924, Pablo Picasso designed sets and costumes for Serge Diaghilev's Ballet russes, including some of the most important in the company's repertoire, Parade, Le Tricorne and Le Train bleu. This pastel is a study for the costume of Mercure in the eponymous 1924 ballet choreographed by Léonide Massine, with music by Erik Satie. Although Neo-Classical in subject matter, Josep Palau i Fabre has pointed out that in the separation of line from colour in the drawings related to this ballet, Picasso 'applied one of the discoveries of Cubism, namely the separation between form and what was referred to as the local tone' (J. Palau i Fabre, Picasso, From the Ballets to Drama, 1917-1926, Barcelona, 1999, p. 409).