THE HARLEQUIN, PIERROT OR COLUMBINA

1930

Medium : Iron, cast, welded

Dimensions : 43 x 30 x 30 cm

A Harlequin, far from observed reality

Although this sculpture has sometimes been called « Pierrot » or even « Colombine », the checkered suit is a clear indication that the character represented in the form of a bust evokes the Harlequin. The sculpture includes neither masses nor closed volumes. The body is structured by the coming together of two vertical planes, one pierced by the checkered motif. Two tubular forms creating an arch, and a large triangle formed by iron rods suggest additional oblique virtual planes. The triangle evokes the Harlequin’s distinctive hat. In this plane, the face is articulated, formed by a sheet of metal cut into the form of a lentil with a sort of opening in the chin. The eyes are two round perforations and the nose a little stub of soldered iron. Behind this flat, lunar masque, a conical form creates an orifice of shadow.

González’s most cubist work

A small group of intermediary drawings created around 1930 allows us to understand that the Harlequin is derived from Le baiser, a sculpture also analyzed on this website. However, the Harlequin is more three-dimensional and complex than this preceding work. Though Le Baiser implies a predominantly frontal vision, Harlequin can be contemplated from various angles and offers, from each one of them, a clearly different vision.
Often considered the most cubist of González’s sculptures, some historians have considered the Harlequin in relation to Picasso’s work. The plausibility of this association is reinforced by the fact that González was in the process of collaborating in 1930 with his Spanish colleague on the execution of metal sculptures destined for the funeral monument of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire.

The figure of the Harlequin, which had been a frequent theme in Picasso’s work in the early years of the 20th century, reappears in his work between 1928 and 1930, probably thanks to Apollinaire’s memory. Indeed, Apollinaire’s poetry made frequent references to characters from the Commedia dell’arte. However, the figure of the Harlequin is not exclusive to Picasso. It can be found in the 1920s in works by other cubists frequented by González, like Lipchitz, Severini, Gris, Ozenfant, Metzinger or Gleizes. Furthermore, Picasso’s style at this time was quite informal, populated with irregular but expressive forms. In other words, Picasso’s work no longer corresponded to the parameters of cubism. None of this irregularity or expressivity can be found in González’s Harlequin, which is stylistically closer to the geometrical transparency of the sort of cubism practiced by Gris, Metzinger and Gleizes than Picasso’s visual language at that time.

Distance from geometrical abstraction

The Harlequin and Le Baiser I constitute two of the most important works in González’s exhibition of metallic sculpture organized at the Galerie de France in May 1931. Unlike the primitivist or archaic influence demonstrated by the majority of the works displayed at this occasion, these two sculptures demonstrate that González had integrated the implications of cubism and was ready, like others in his generation, to consider the propositions of the group Cercle et Carré in favor of geometrical abstraction. This readiness is most visible in Le Baiser, González’s work most aligned with this artistic tendency. The fact that The Harlequin, executed just after Le baiser in the same year, is less abstract than this slightly earlier work, indicates that González had already begun to distance himself from geometrical abstraction.

The Harlequin, 1930, Kunsthaus, Zurich

 

Text by Tomás Llorens, translated from Spanish by Amanda Herold-Marme