Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne

Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne by Pablo Picasso, created in 1920, captures the synergy between the visual arts and avant-garde performance popular in the early 20th century. This work is one of thirty-two collotype prints derived from the famous Spanish artist’s influential collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Le Tricorne (The Three-Cornered Hat) premiered just a year earlier, and its narrative was deeply inspired by traditional Andalusian folk culture, a subject Picasso frequently engaged with during this period. The resulting designs are pivotal examples of how modern artists translated their studio sensibilities into theatrical expression, blending structured composition with vibrant color.

The piece itself is a remarkable example of high-quality printmaking from the era. Executed using the collotype process and meticulously enhanced by pochoir coloring, this hybrid technique allowed for the high-fidelity, rich reproduction of Picasso’s original drawings. Collotype is a photomechanical method valued for its ability to capture subtle, continuous tonal ranges, while the subsequent hand-stenciling (pochoir) imbues the prints with the characteristic boldness and warmth of the original gouache and watercolor sketches. As part of a rare, limited-edition portfolio documenting the ballet production, the design is formally classified as an Illustrated Book. The overall series, featuring thirty-one plates colored with pochoir, served to cement the visual legacy of the performance long after its initial stage run.

This particular design reflects the return to neoclassical figuration seen in Picasso’s output around 1920, even while maintaining a simplified, graphic quality appropriate for stage costuming. The work is a crucial record of the artist’s expansive involvement in set and theatrical design, an enterprise that saw him move beyond the radical deconstruction of Cubism toward a more decorative and structurally defined style. This significant example of Spanish modernism resides in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, underscoring the enduring historical value and technical complexity inherent in these foundational 20th-century prints.