Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne

Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne is an important illustrated print created by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1920. This work originated not as a solitary drawing but as a component of a significant published portfolio classified by the Museum of Modern Art as an Illustrated Book. The original ballet, Le Tricorne (also known as The Three-Cornered Hat), premiered in 1919 and marked a key collaboration between Picasso, composer Manuel de Falla, and choreographer Léonide Massine for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Picasso drew deeply upon his cultural heritage for the project, designing the sets and costumes to capture the drama and vibrant folk traditions of Andalusia.

The piece utilizes a sophisticated printmaking technique reflective of high-quality early 20th-century publication standards. The underlying image is a collotype, a photomechanical process valued for its ability to reproduce fine details and subtle gradations of tone. This base print was then meticulously hand-colored using pochoir, or stenciling. The use of pochoir allowed for the sharp, flat application of vivid color fields, lending the finished design a graphic energy characteristic of Picasso’s theatrical work from this period. The resulting prints served both as documentation of the performance and as independent artistic objects, ensuring the designs achieved wide distribution shortly after the ballet’s debut.

The portfolio, which contained thirty-two collotypes, demonstrates the multidisciplinary approach common among leading modernist figures in the 1920s. Picasso’s engagement with theatrical design solidified his reputation beyond painting and sculpture, showing his capacity to integrate fine art aesthetics into stagecraft. This work provides valuable insight into the transformation of initial sketches into reproducible art, bridging the gap between design and graphic reproduction. The work is a significant historical document of modernist collaboration and resides in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, underscoring its importance within the canon of illustrated books and modernist prints.