Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne

Costume design for the ballet Le Tricorne by Pablo Picasso, created in 1920, exemplifies the fruitful collaboration between avant-garde art and stage performance during the interwar period. This specific print originates from a portfolio of thirty-two collotypes, thirty-one of which were meticulously enhanced using the delicate and labor-intensive pochoir technique. Pochoir, or stencil printing, allowed for the application of vibrant, hand-painted color layers over the photographic base of the collotype, resulting in richly saturated and precise visual documentation of Picasso’s original stage sketches. The classification of the work as an Illustrated Book underscores its importance as a key published record of the renowned Ballets Russes production.

Picasso’s involvement with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes marked a pivotal phase in his career, integrating his revolutionary drawing style with theatrical stagecraft. The ballet Le Tricorne (The Three-Cornered Hat), which premiered in 1919, was based on a traditional Spanish folk tale and required the artist, a Spanish native, to channel his cultural heritage into the vibrant designs. The studies presented in this 1920 portfolio document the exuberant, geometric aesthetics the artist applied to characters central to the narrative. The quality of these mechanical prints ensured that the temporary nature of the performance was preserved, allowing the designs to influence modernist illustration and applied arts far beyond the confines of the theater.

As a vital component of modern artistic history, this piece provides crucial insight into Picasso's return to figuration and Neoclassicism following his intense Cubist experiments. The meticulous reproduction techniques ensured that these costume studies remained accessible for scholarly examination and appreciation. The work, a significant example of Spanish modernist illustration and printmaking from the 1920 period, is preserved in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, ensuring its legacy as part of the museum's noted holdings of illustrated books and fine art prints.