Three Musicians

Three Musicians is the title of two similar oil paintings by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. They were both completed in the summer of 1921 in Fontainebleau near Paris, France, in the garage of a villa that Picasso was using as his studio. They exemplify the Synthetic Cubist style; the flat planes of color and "intricate puzzle-like composition" giving the appearance of cutout paper with which the style originated. These paintings each colorfully represent three musicians wearing masks. Two of the musicians are wearing costumes of the popular Italian theater Commedia dell'arte.[1]

Pablo Picasso, 1921, Three Musicians, oil on canvas, 200.7 × 222.9 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest

Pablo Picasso, 1921, Nous autres musiciens (Three Musicians), oil on canvas, 204.5 × 188.3 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art

The more famous version features a Pierrot on the left with a clarinet, a Harlequin in the middle with a guitar and a singing monk on the right holding sheet music sitting at a table on a dark brown stage. Under the table lies a dark brown dog. The dog is mostly hidden, but his tail is shown between the Harlequin’s legs, his body under the Pierrot's pants, and 2 front legs on the left side. In the second painting, Pierrot and Harlequin have changed places, with the monk remaining to their right.

The Harlequin is believed to represent Picasso. The Pierrot is believed to represent Guillaume Apollinaire and the monk is believed to represent Max Jacob.[2][1] Apollinaire and Jacob, both poets, had been close friends of Picasso during the 1910s. However, Apollinaire died of the Spanish flu on November 9, 1918, while Jacob decided to enter a monastery in 1921.[3]

One version is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City;[2] the other version is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[1]