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CHAPTER II

Rose Metaphors - 1905

Picasso's mood started to change in 1905. His work was selling so well that the dealer Vollard decided to represent him. Thus, he had the security of a reputable dealer and financial success was a possibility. He acquired many new friends and his studio became a meeting place for the revolutionaries in art. He was living at this time with Fernande Olivier who began to appear as a subject in his paintings during 1905. Fernande has been described as a beautiful girl with a "healthy, positive attitude to life." Her influence in Picasso's life is apparent in the paintings Picasso did of the circus performers and their families. (Buckheim 32)

The Cirque Medrano in Paris has attracted many artists. Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Forain, Seurat and others were entertained there and Picasso frequented the circus and delighted in meeting the performers. Apparently, he felt close to them and their solitary way of life as entertainers. He seldom pictured them in their professional acts but preferred to show them in their family life and surroundings. By this time, Picasso was using more pink and rose coloring in his paintings. He shifted his emphasis from the old beggars and harlots to more youthful subjects in attitudes which expressed affection and family devotion.

The numerous paintings of harlequins and the absence of many

self-portraits at this time raises the question as to the possibility that the harlequin, as symbol, represents Picasso. Sam Hunter wrote "Picasso's stoic old saltimbanques and emaciated young acrobats with reproachful eyes haunt us like a dream; they are the stuff of vision rather than reality. They are, in fact, something in the nature of a metaphor for Picasso's sense of his own artistic isolation" (Hunter 188).

The psychologist Carl Jung said that the harlequin may be Picasso in disguise . Picasso had seen the "Mardi Gras" by Cezanne at Vollard's and this painting may have sparked his interest in the harlequin image. Watteau also did paintings of clowns which would have been familiar to Picasso. Moreover, at the

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