Les deux Saltimbanques (The two acrobats) (from 'La Suite des Saltimbanques' series) 1905

This rare early print is one of 12 signed impressions printed by Delâtre in 1905, before the plates were purchased and steel-faced by dealer Ambroise Vollard to enable larger print runs. The acrobats’ athleticism stands in marked contrast to the gaunt figures of Picasso’s Blue period, revealing a shift in tone that characterises the more contented scenes of the Rose period. These figures emanate poise, a touch of defiance, and maturity beyond their apparent youth. Picasso’s resources were limited so he repurposed a disused plate, and traces of the previous composition, alongside Picasso’s own revised lines, are visible in the background.

Emblematic of the cross-fertilisation of ideas across media, for which Picasso is widely known, the boy with the scarf appears in some gouaches from the same year: Two acrobats with a dog, from a private collection, and Young acrobat and child, held in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s collection, New York. Picasso once confessed, ‘When I begin a series of drawings . . . I don’t know whether they’re going to remain just drawings, or become an etching or a lithograph, or even a sculpture’.