During his long career Picasso returned time and again to the traditional figure of Harlequin. In his alternative roles as a resourceful scoundrel (in the Commedia dell'Arte theatre) or acrobat (in the circus) Harlequin's gaily costumed figure is not only picturesque, but also embodies the contradiction of which artists are all too keenly aware, between the creator of illusions of beauty and mirth and the vulnerable human being behind the greasepaint.
In his youth, Picasso showed Harlequin as a circus performer; later, the diamond-patterned Harlequin costume added to the gaiety of the two celebrated versions of the Cubist Three Musicians (1921). Then in February 1923 Picasso persuaded the Catalan painter Jacinto Salvado to pose for the first of a series of Harlequin paintings. His solemn expression and rather stiff pose are out of keeping with the vivid, outlandish hat and costume; the incongruity would be even more marked if the painting were not in an intriguingly 'unfinished' state.
