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Saltimbanque in Profile

1905
Not on view
Consummately assured, this work may be one of Picasso's last pictures depicting the itinerant acrobats called saltimbanques. The palette and serene mood link it to the Family of Saltimbanques (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), completed in late 1905. As with The Actor (MMA 52.175), Picasso borrowed the pose and hands from a work by the Neoclassical master Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (Comte de Pastoret, 1823–26, Art Institute of Chicago), who had himself borrowed the pose from Bronzino's sixteenth-century Portrait of a Young Man (MMA 29.100.16).

Picasso originally made the head of the young performer appear much more sculptural, with deeply cut curls and heavily lidded eyes. It is likely that, in the early 1920s, the Parisian dealer Paul Guillaume had the picture "washed" to soften its appearance prior to its sale to the American publisher and collector Scofield Thayer.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Saltimbanque in Profile
  • Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
  • Date: 1905
  • Medium: Essence on paper board
  • Dimensions: 31 1/4 x 23 1/2 in. (79.4 x 59.7 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982
  • Object Number: 1984.433.269
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2026 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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