Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne

Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne, created by Pablo Picasso in 1920, is an important document of the Spanish artist’s deep involvement with the world of theater and modern dance. This design belongs to a significant series of works related to the famous collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes for the production of Le Tricorne (The Three-Cornered Hat). Set to music by composer Manuel de Falla, the ballet premiered in London in 1919, but this specific artwork, produced in the following year, captures the bold visual language Picasso brought to the stage.

Classified as an Illustrated Book, this work is part of a limited-edition portfolio comprising thirty-two collotypes, thirty-one of which were enhanced with the addition of pochoir coloring. Picasso utilized the intricate printmaking method of collotype to establish the underlying lines and tones, ensuring high fidelity reproduction of his original drawings. Color was subsequently applied through the demanding technique of pochoir, a stencil-based process used for hand-coloring, particularly in high-end fine art prints and livres d'artiste.

The vibrant palette and sharp contours reflect the Spanish cultural influence inherent in the ballet’s narrative, which was drawn from traditional Andalusian folk tales. Although widely recognized for developing Cubism, during the early 1920 period, Picasso often returned to classical figuration, a stylistic shift evident in the defined, robust outlines of this costume rendering. This celebrated example of modernist theatrical design, which remains influential in the history of stage aesthetics, is currently preserved in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. As historical prints created in 1920, high-resolution reproductions of this work are increasingly available for study and reference where they have entered the public domain.