Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne

Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne by Pablo Picasso is a vibrant example of the artist’s significant contributions to theatrical design during the early twentieth century. Created in 1920, this specific image originated not as a unique sketch but as part of a major publication classified as an Illustrated Book, documenting the complete set of costumes and sets for the celebrated production. The original ballet, Le Tricorne (The Three-Cornered Hat), premiered in 1919 and was a defining collaboration between the Spanish artist and Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, featuring choreography by Léonide Massine and music by Manuel de Falla.

This piece showcases the technical quality achieved through the refined print process of the era, utilizing a combination of collotype and pochoir. Collotype provided a precise, high-fidelity photographic base, while the hand-stenciled application of color via pochoir allowed for rich, flat areas of saturated hue, replicating the intensity of the original watercolor or gouache design. This medium effectively captures the stylized, almost geometric forms Picasso employed for the dancer’s outfit. While the artist’s broader aesthetic was shifting toward a neoclassical revival in the early 1920s, this design retains the strong, simplified planar structure echoing the influence of Cubism in the way the figure’s silhouette is rendered.

The subject matter drew deeply on traditional Spanish folklore, costume, and theatrical motifs, reinforcing the Spanish heritage of both the artist and the subject of Le Tricorne. This print is one of thirty-one that utilized the vibrant pochoir technique within the thirty-two collotypes that comprised the portfolio, ensuring the widespread study of the artist’s foray into stage design. The deliberate creation of these high-quality prints served as crucial historical documentation. This important work resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.