The graceful, miniature “girl on a ball” in Pablo Picasso’s painting was not originally a girl at all

Painting “Girl on a Ball”
Oil on canvas, 147 x 95 cm
Year of creation: 1905
Now kept in the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin in Moscow

In Montmartre, in the abode of the poor and bohemians, the Spaniard Pablo Picasso felt among kindred souls. He finally moved to Paris in 1904 and spent several times a week at Medrano’s circus, whose name was given by the city’s favorite clown, Jerome Medrano, a compatriot of the artist. Picasso became friends with the troupe's artists. Sometimes he was mistaken for an immigrant acrobat, so Picasso became a part of the circus community. Then he began to paint a large picture about the life of artists. Among the heroes of the canvas were a child acrobat on a ball and an older comrade watching him. However, during the process of work, the idea changed radically: according to X-ray studies carried out in 1980, the artist completely rewrote the painting several times. In the resulting painting, “Family of Acrobats,” the teenager on the ball is no longer present. The artist turned the episode that remained in the sketches into another smaller painting - “Girl on a Ball.” According to British art critic John Richardson, who knew Picasso, the artist painted it on the back of a painted-over portrait of a man to save money on canvas and paint for “A Family of Acrobats.”

In Russia, “The Girl on the Ball” has become much more popular than the large painting since it was purchased in 1913 by philanthropist Ivan Morozov and ended up in Moscow. In Novorossiysk in 2006, a monument was erected to the acrobat from Picasso’s masterpiece.

Right: A boy balancing on a ball. Johannes Goetz. 1888

1 Girl. The teenager’s pose is unlikely to have been drawn from life: even an experienced acrobat could not hold this position for more than a couple of seconds. John Richardson saw the artist's source of inspiration in the bronze figurine "Boy Balancing on a Ball", created by Johannes Goetz in 1888. And in the first sketches of this plot, Picasso, according to Richardson, had not a girl, but a boy.

2 Ball. Leading researcher at the Hermitage Alexander Babin suggested that the ball on which the acrobat is balancing is, according to Picasso’s plan, the pedestal of the goddess of fate. Fortune was traditionally depicted standing on a ball or wheel, symbolizing the impermanence of human happiness.

3 Athlete. Richardson wrote that Picasso was probably posed by a friend from Medrano's circus. The artist made the figure of the strong man deliberately geometric, anticipating a new direction - cubism, of which he soon became one of the founders.

4 Pink. The period from the end of 1904 to 1906 in Picasso’s work is conventionally called “circus” or “pink”. American specialist in 20th century art E.A. Carmine explained the artist’s passion for this color by the fact that the dome in the Medrano circus was pink.

5 Landscape. Art critic Anatoly Podoksik believed that the area in the background resembles the mountainous Spanish landscape. Picasso depicted not artists hired for a stationary circus, but part of a traveling troupe, which he saw in his childhood in his homeland.

6 Flower. In this context, the flower with its short-lived beauty is a symbol of fleetingness, the brevity of existence.

7 Horse. In those days, the main animal in the life of circus performers. Horses pulled wagons of traveling performers; riders' acts were necessarily included in the program of stationary circuses.

8 Family. Picasso depicted circus performers in everyday life, with children more often than in the arena. In his paintings, art critic Nina Dmitrieva noted, the troupe is an ideal model of a family: artists stick together in a world where, like other representatives of bohemia, they are considered marginal.

9 Cube. Alexander Babin, citing a Latin proverb Sedes Fortunae rotunda, sedes Virtutis quadrata(“The throne of Fortune is round, but that of Valor is square”), wrote that the static cube in this case serves as the pedestal of the allegory of Valor, in contrast to Fortune on an unstable ball.

Artist
Pablo Picasso

1881 - was born in the Spanish city of Malaga in the family of an artist.
1895 - entered the Barcelona School of Arts and Crafts.
1897–1898 - Studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid.
1904 - moved to France.
1907 - created the painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, in which there was a turn towards cubism and because of which there were rumors that the artist had gone crazy.
1918–1955 - was married to Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova. The marriage produced a son, Paulo (Paul).
1927–1939 - an affair with Marie-Therese Walter, the daughter of a milliner. The lovers had a daughter, Maya.
1937 - wrote "Guernica", one of the most famous anti-war paintings in the world.
1944–1953 - an affair with the artist Françoise Gilot, who bore him a son, Claude, and a daughter, Paloma.
1961 - married Jacqueline Rock.
1973 - died of pulmonary edema at his villa Notre-Dame de Vie in Mougins, France.

Illustrations: Alamy / Legion-media, AKG / East News, National Gallery of Art

09.11.2017 Oksana Kopenkina

"Girl on a Ball" by Picasso. What does the picture tell about?

Pablo Picasso. Girl on the Ball. 1905

In Picasso's painting we see circus performers. An acrobat girl and a strong athlete. At the beginning of the 20th century, many circuses were traveling circuses. We can say that they were on eternal tour.

This is also why the profession of a circus performer was considered marginal. These were poor people, without a fixed place of residence. And it wasn’t because of a better life that they got into this profession. Orphanhood or extreme need of a family that could not feed all the children.

As a rule, circus performers did not have friends and relatives outside their circus “family.” And any injury could deprive them of not only their meager income, but also throw them into the abyss of loneliness.

When you look at the heroes, it immediately becomes obvious: the athlete understands this. He is absorbed in his thoughts. His gaze is directed somewhere inside himself.

And the acrobat girl is still at that carefree age when people don’t think about such things. She rejoices in her dexterity and the company that surrounds her.

Pablo Picasso. Girl on a ball (fragment). 1905 Pushkin Museum, Moscow

Many details emphasize the pitiful situation of these people. The sky is a dirty gray-yellow color. The athlete’s back echoes the desert ridges that serve as the background. The cube and ball are also earthy in color.

Only the contours of the bodies separate the characters from the surrounding space. And the blue color of their clothes somehow makes them stand out against the background of a dull landscape. Not allowing you to dissolve in it, the abyss. Their lives are fragile, despite the dexterity of one and the strength of the other.

Yes, blue plays a very important role in the picture.

The rich blue color of the strongman's shorts is in the foreground. The light blue color of the girl's costume in the center. And the gray-blue color of the woman’s skirt in the background.

The color seems to lose its saturation from the foreground to the background. This makes it possible for the eye to wander diagonally across the picture.

From a strong person to a fragile person. From masculine to feminine. From heavy to light. There is a feeling of a pendulum: back and forth, back and forth.

This perfectly emphasizes the fact that the girl is balancing on a ball. You begin to feel the swaying, the desire to maintain balance.

The image of balancing also fits the description of the life of traveling circus performers. From one income to another. From one city to another. An endless line of spectators. No stability. No guarantees.

And this applies not only to the heroes of the film “Girl on the Ball”. And all the circus performers are Picasso.

Pablo Picasso. Two acrobats with a dog. 1905 Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA)

But life goes on. And Picasso brings a touch of joy. A pale scarlet flower in the girl's hair. Serenely grazing white horse. A child in a woman's arms. A bright outfit on a girl next to a woman. So all is not lost. And not so sad.

The circus was depicted even before Picasso. For example, . But if Picasso’s characters are rather fictitious. Then Degas painted real circus stars. In the most extravagant outfits. At the peak of glory.

A completely different feeling arises when you look at his Miss La-La.

Edgar Degas. Miss La La at Fernando's Circus. 1879 London National Gallery.

Yes, among the circus performers there was also an elite. Who could afford to work in a stationary circus in Paris. But this is not about Picasso's heroes.

Pablo Picasso painted "Girl on a Ball" in 1905. Today the painting is in the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin

Reflecting on the difficult lot of free artists, Picasso depicts a family of circus performers against the backdrop of a desert landscape. It seems to expose the “behind the scenes” of the circus arena and shows that this life is full of hardships, exhausting work, poverty and everyday disorder.

The picture is filled with colossal tension and drama. Picasso very accurately described here the psychological state of a hysterical girl, who is in an extremely unstable state. She balances on the “ball” of her own nascent sexuality, trying to maintain a balance between arousal, desire and prohibition.

1. Central figures

A fragile girl and a powerful athlete are two equal figures that form the central core of the composition. The gymnast carefreely demonstrates her skills to her father, but he does not look at her: his gaze is turned inward, he is immersed in thoughts about the fate of the family. These images, strongly contrasting with each other, symbolically resemble scales: it is not clear which of the bowls will weigh. This is the main idea of ​​the picture - the hope placed on the future of children is opposed to doom. Moreover, their chances are equal. The fate of the family is left to the will of fate.

2. Girl on the ball

In fact, this is a little Lolita who is looking for her father’s love - the athlete may also be her older brother, but it doesn’t matter, in any case, we have a mature man, a father figure. She feels that she is not needed by her mother, and in search of love she turns to the nearest male figure. As befits a hysteric, she seduces, plays, captivates and cannot calm down or gain stability. She balances between mother and father, between desire and prohibition, between childhood and adult sexuality. And this balance is very important. Any wrong movement can lead to a fall and injury, which will disrupt its development.

3. Athlete

The man’s reaction is very important - he does not give in to temptation, does not react to the sexual provocations of the girl who seduces him. If he accepted her right to an adult sex life, it would lead to her falling off the ball. She maintains balance due to the fact that he is stable, reliable, stable in his fatherly role. He does not forbid her to dance in front of him, does not forbid her to seduce him. He gives her this space to develop.

But it is obvious that there is a struggle going on inside him as well. It is no coincidence that his face is turned to the side: in order to cope with excitement and overcome his feelings, he cannot look at the girl. The intense blue of his swim trunks and the fabric he is sitting on highlights the conflict between arousal and inhibition.

4. Kettlebell

The object that the athlete holds in his hand is very similar to a weight (4). It is located right at the level of his genitals. He can't put it on for some reason. And this is an additional sign of instability. We see how tense his back muscles are. By holding a kettlebell, the athlete fights sexual tension within himself. Without realizing it, he is afraid that if he puts the weight down and relaxes, he may find himself at the mercy of sexual feelings and succumb to them.

Figures in the background

In the background we see the figure of the gymnast’s mother (5) with her children, a dog and a white horse. The black dog (6) was usually a symbol of death and served as an intermediary between different worlds. The white horse (7) here acts as a symbol of fate and has long been endowed with the ability to predict it.

It is symbolic that the mother’s back is turned to the girl on the ball. When a woman takes care of an infant, she turns all her attention to him, psychologically distances herself from older children, and they begin to feel frustration. And they turn to their father in search of his love, attention and support. Here this moment is clearly shown: both girls have turned away from their mother and are looking towards their father.

Ball and cube

The ball (8) has always been considered one of the most perfect and significant geometric figures; it personifies harmony and the divine principle. A smooth ball with an ideal surface has always been associated with happiness, the absence of obstacles and difficulties in life. But the ball under the girl’s feet has an irregular geometric shape and tells us about her difficult fate.

The cube (9) symbolizes the earthly, mortal, material world, most likely the world of the circus, to which the athlete belongs. The cube looks like a box for storing circus props, and the father is ready to give them to his daughter, but does not yet want to reveal to her the whole truth of circus life: he would like a better fate for his children.

Color composition

In the images of the mother, tightrope walker and elements of the athlete’s clothing, cold blue-ash tones predominate, symbolizing sadness and doom: these people can no longer escape the “circus circle”. The absence of shadows on the canvas is also a symbol of hopelessness. In many cultures, the shadow was endowed with a sacred meaning: it was believed that a person who lost it was doomed to death.

Hope is symbolized by the red color spots that are present in the children's clothing. At the same time, the youngest daughter is completely dressed in this color - she has not yet been touched by circus everyday life. And the eldest is already almost completely “captured” by the world of the circus - she only has a small red decoration in her hair.

It is curious that the figure of the athlete himself is painted with a predominance of light, pinkish shades - the same as in the background landscape. And this is no coincidence. Another, better world is somewhere beyond the hills, and it is from there that the divine light emanates, symbolizing hope: after all, the athlete himself, in spite of everything, is hope for the girl and the family.

The color red is associated with bright, openly demonstrated sexuality. It seems that only the little girl in the red dress has it (10). Children at this age do not yet know excessive prohibitions; they may have various infantile sexual fantasies. She is still firmly on her feet, she is still far from the man and is not afraid of getting burned.

The girl on the ball is like a butterfly next to the fire. Its purple color is associated with excitement and tension, but it does not turn into intense blue, the color of total prohibition. Interestingly, the purple color comes from a combination of red and blue.

White horse

In psychoanalysis, the horse symbolizes passion, the wild unconscious. But here we see a white horse (7) grazing peacefully, which is located directly between the athlete and the gymnast. For me, it symbolizes the possibility of integration and positive development. This is a sign of hope that forbidden sexual tension will subside and passions will be tamed.

Excitement will promote the development of each of them. The girl will grow up and feel emotional, sexual with another man, and the athlete will be a mature father for his children and a reliable husband for his woman.

About the experts

Psychoanalyst, Doctor of Psychology, director of the master's program "Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic business consulting" at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, head of the master's program "Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy" at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

art critic, independent business consultant, coach, studies psychoanalysis and business consulting at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Plot

Circus performers rest during a break between endless performances. Thin as a line itself, the gymnast balances on the ball, repeating the number, the strongman calmly sits on the cube. An ordinary scene from circus life.

The contrast of the bodies is also enhanced by the difference in the bases: the ball is an extremely unstable figure with a single point of support, while the cube is in contact with the entire base of the floor plane, which makes it as stable as possible.

Picasso, in whose head in 1905 the ideas of Cubism were just taking shape, in this work was already focused on form. It is through her that he expresses his ideas, his worldview. The color scheme is dominated by pink (the main color of this creative stage), but echoes of the previous, “blue” period are still heard, dedicated to the poor, the hardships of life, poverty and generally making a difficult impression (rich blue with its shades was used by the artist as a relay of sadness, hopelessness and emptiness).

On the horizon, Picasso depicted part of a traveling troupe, such as he saw in his childhood in his homeland. That’s why the landscape is so reminiscent of Spanish lands.

Context

Picasso’s “pink” period is associated with communication with circus performers. Having moved to Paris in 1904, he was in love with this city, with its hustle and bustle, with the gushing variety of ideas and events. Several times a week he visited the Medrano Circus, became acquainted with the artists and decided to paint a large canvas, “A Family of Acrobats.” In the process of work, he went far from the original idea.

Family of acrobats, 1905

What we know today as "The Girl on the Ball" was the boy's episode in "The Family of Acrobats," but the artist abandoned that part in the process. A separate episode was then turned into an independent work, with the boy becoming a girl.

Researchers suggest that when working on the balancing figure, Picasso took the sculpture of Johannes Goetz as a basis. Indeed, it is quite difficult to imagine that even the most skilled acrobat is able to stand on the ball for a long time.

"Boy Balancing on a Ball" by Johannes Goetz

He did not leave the house alone and always carried a weapon with him, because the area where he lived was infested with those who understood only the language of force. In those years, Picasso allowed himself everything - both in his work and in life. One mistress replaced another, relationships with men, alcohol, opium binges. He stopped using drugs when he saw the body of a German artist who had hanged himself in the studio. Picasso was afraid that one day, while intoxicated, he would cross the line of despair and also commit suicide.

Together with Georges Braque, they invented Cubism. Rejecting the traditions of naturalism, they wanted to more convincingly show the sense of space and heaviness of the masses. However, gradually they came down to puzzles that were almost impossible to solve. Picasso's later work always reflected what was happening: fashionable surrealists, political upheavals, wars, peacetime. Periods of creativity consistently follow changes in the global world.

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Picasso was brimming with energy. He had several wives, countless mistresses and lovers, legitimate and illegitimate children. Tens of thousands of works are attributed to him. No one can accurately assess the scale of his artistic heritage - the numbers vary from 20 thousand to 100 thousand paintings.

And after death he remains the most popular, the most expensive, the most prolific, the very Pablo Picasso.

Title, English: Acrobat on a Ball.
original name: Acrobate a la boule (Fillette a la boule).
Year of ending: 1905.
Dimensions: 147 × 95 cm.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Location: Moscow, State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin

The painting “Girl on a Ball” opens the so-called “pink period” of Pablo Picasso’s work. At this time he finally moved to Paris. He makes new acquaintances, friendships, and relationships with Fernanda Olivier.

The paintings take on a light pink, airy intensity; pearl-gray, pink-red, ocher tones are significantly different from the previous, sad and static “blue period” of the master.

Picasso succumbs to the general fascination with circus subjects, which were very popular at that time. His works depict traveling artists and comedians, convey a certain mood, and are distinguished by their fullness of life.

“Girl on a Ball” is a masterpiece, the main message of which is the opposition of lightness, flexibility and stability, massiveness, a statement of two different forms, dissimilarity, the “extremes” of existence. This is the grace of an acrobat girl, and the solidity of an athlete, the mobility of a ball and the stability of a cube.

The canvas is built on contrasts, filled with internal drama. The background of the picture is a dull landscape, sun-scorched land on which a lone horse grazes; a woman with a child walking somewhere, a hilly area, a country road... A consistency that will remain unchanged for a very long time.

In contrast to the background are the traveling artists, whose life is always on the move, always in the crowd. The silence of the background ends with the arrival of the circus performers, bringing with them an atmosphere of fun and noisy joy.

The artists' props - a ball and a cube - are also played by the artist as a contrast to stability, constancy, - movement, variability. Flexibility, grace of a girl holding her balance, and a frozen athlete who has merged with his pedestal.

Delicate pink, pearl tones, novelty and a feeling of fullness, airiness, lightness, are emphasized by a colorful touch - a bright red flower in the hair of a girl gymnast. This is practically the only bright spot that attracts attention among the pastel calm colors of the picture.

It is worth noting that the artists of that time, and Picasso in particular, identified themselves with circus actors - outcasts of society, whose craft was the spectacle that the crowd so craves.

In the Medrano circus, which was located near the Montmartre hill, Picasso finds a lot of interesting material for himself - people: adults and very young, beautiful and ugly, who perfectly master their skills. There is a rich palette of costumes, gestures, and characters.

The master’s characters from the “blue period” of creativity cannot boast of such a variety of real volumes, forms, and fullness of life - they are more static, motionless. Poverty and sadness in the “pink period” are replaced by the living, moving world of circus and theater.

Fernanda Olivier, a curvaceous model who inspired the artist to create such an image as a female guitar, also became the master’s muse in this period. They live in Bateau Lavur - this strange haven of poets, merchants, artists, janitors on the verge of poverty, but in perfect creative disorder.

The painting “Girl on a Ball” (the so-called “bridge” between the “blue” and “pink” periods in the artist’s work) came to Russia thanks to Ivan Abramovich Morozov, who purchased it from Kahnweiler in 1913 for 16 thousand francs. Previously, the painting was in the collection of Gertrude Stein. For comparison, in 1906 Vollard purchased 30 paintings from Picasso for 2 thousand francs.

Today, the painting “Girl on a Ball” is in the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin in Moscow.