English School, Harlequin Dancing on a Stage

Harlequin, the masked trickster of the commedia dell’arte, was a favourite of painters and ballet designers in the early twentieth century. Picasso painted him often, and the Ballets Russes put him on the London stage in Fokine’s Carnaval.

He dances alone in a pool of light, in a diamond-patterned costume of ochre, yellow and teal, a black bicorne and a black half-mask, his slapstick at his hip. One arm curves over his head and one knee bends low. Yellow-green curtains are swagged above a dark backcloth, and his shadow falls across a pink floor.

Gouache on paper, under glass. Unsigned. In a dark oak frame with a carved rope-twist edge. There is a small mark near the right edge.