PABLO PICASSO 1881-1973 Málaga 1881-1973 Mougins (Spanish) Title: Acrobats | Les Saltimbanques, 1905/1922 Technique: Hand Signed and Numbered Etching and Aquatint on Arches Wove Paper Paper Size: 66.8 x 48 cm. / 26.3 x 18.9 in. Image Size: 59 x 41.5 cm. / 23.2 x 16.3 in. Additional Information: The work is hand signed in pencil by the artist "Picasso" at the lower left margin. It is also hand numbered in pencil, from the edition of/200 at the lower left margin next to the signature. It is also signed and dated "Picasso 1905" in the plate on the lower right edge and inscribed in the plate "Gravé par Jacques Villon, 1922" in the lower left edge. This work was printed in 1922 in a limited edition of 200 signed and numbered impressions. It was published by Bernheim-Jeune, Éditeurs, Paris. After the First World War, Jacques Villon engraved a series of aquatints after paintings by the Modern Masters, such as Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Derain, Laurencin, Signac, Renoir, Cezanne, Vlaminck, Bonnard, Manet, Dufy, Modigiliani, Van Gogh, and others. This print was part of this series. Note: From late 1904 to the beginning of 1906, Picasso's work centred on a single theme: the saltimbanque, or itinerant circus performer. The theme of the circus and the circus performer had a long tradition in art and in literature, and had become especially prominent in French art of the late nineteenth century. A more immediate inspiration for Picasso came from performances of the Cirque Médrano, a circus that the artist attended frequently near his residence and studio in Montmartre. Literature: De Ginestet, C. & Pouillon, C. (1979). Jacques Villon; Les estampes et les Illustrations Catalogue Raisonné. Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques. Reference: de Ginestat & Pouillon 634