Drypoint, 1905. 405x350 mm; 16x13 3/4 inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Van Gelder watermark. Printed by Louis Fort, Paris. Published by Vollard, Paris. From La Suite des Saltimbanques. A superb impression with strong contrasts, burr on John the Baptist's head and the contours of the figures and crisp, partially inky plate edges.
Coinciding with his Rose Period (or Circus Period) of painting, Picasso's (1881-1973) first series of etchings in 1905, generally known as La Suite des Saltimbanques, and created while he was getting his footing as a transplanted artist in Paris, are mostly candid representations of the lives and private moments of acrobats and gypsies. Picasso frequently attended the Cirque Médrano in Montmartre, Paris, at the time and associated with the circus entertainers, just as he himself had chosen to follow the bohemian life of an artist, on the fringe and as a performer—to create works which would dazzle the art market—rather than pursue a career as a young bourgeois professional as his family had intended for him. Bloch 14; Geiser 17.
