Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne

Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne by Pablo Picasso is a seminal example of the artist’s engagement with theatrical production, dating from 1920. Classified as an Illustrated Book, this specific image is a high-quality print created using the demanding processes of collotype and pochoir. It originates from a large portfolio of thirty-two plates, primarily employing hand-coloring techniques, designed to visually document the costumes and sets for the famed ballet.

This work serves as a record of the historic collaboration between Spanish visual arts and the Ballets Russes under Sergei Diaghilev. Picasso, who was profoundly involved in the staging of Le Tricorne (The Three-Cornered Hat), provided the set and costume concepts for the production, which premiered in 1919. The composition documents the stylized yet robust aesthetic that Picasso brought to the stage, moving away from pure abstraction while still maintaining the bold geometry learned during his Cubist period.

The printmaking technique utilized—collotype for the base image and pochoir for color—was chosen for its ability to produce sophisticated prints with remarkable fidelity to the original design sketches. Collotype allowed for rich, continuous tones, while the addition of pochoir, a technique involving hand-stenciling, applied vibrant, flat areas of color, emphasizing the theatrical and Spanish cultural influences central to the ballet's theme.

Published prints such as this made Picasso’s influential work in design and scenography accessible to a wider audience in 1920. This exceptional example of Modernist printmaking, documenting a pivotal moment in the history of dance and design, is housed in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.