Three Musicians

Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians (1921), oil on canvas, 200.7 x 222.9 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest
Pablo Picasso, 1921, Nous autres musiciens (Three Musicians), oil on canvas, 204.5 x 188.3 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Three Musicians is the title of two similar collage and oil paintings by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. They were both completed in 1921 in Fontainebleau near Paris, France, and exemplify the Synthetic Cubist style; the flat planes of colour and "intricate puzzle-like composition" echoing the arrangements of cutout paper with which the style originated. One version is currently owned by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City; the other is found in the Philadelphia Museum of Art .

Each painting features a Harlequin, a Pierrot, and a monk, who are generally believed to represent Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, and Max Jacob, respectively. Apollinaire and Jacob, both poets, had been close friends of Picasso during the 1910s. However, Apollinaire died of the Spanish flu in 1918, while Jacob decided to enter a monastery in 1921.[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Pablo Picasso." Grove Art Online.


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