Chester Dale Collection contains most works by Pablo Picasso and the great variety of expressionist paintings. In order to learn more about Picasso, one should visit Mezzanine gallery at the East Building. East Building was constructed in 1978 under the decision of Andrew Mellon (the founder of NGA). Architect I.M. Pei was chosen to design it in a modernist style but closely linked to the original building (NGA, 2018). East Building galleries exhibit modern and contemporary art.
Mezzanine gallery is designed in minimalist style; white walls are contrasting with bright chaotic patterns of expressionist art. Two pieces are chosen for this analysis: Family of Saltimbanques and The Tragedy by Pablo Picasso. Although these paintings are an integral part of the collection, they are first to capture viewer’s attention.
The first one, The Tragedy (1903), was painted during Picasso’s Blue Period when his major subject matter was “beggars, sick people, the crippled, the hungry and prostitutes [all] painted in the same style” (Carmean, 1980). The Blue Period started after the brief trip to Paris in 1902 which ended up in poverty. The artist chose deep shades of blue to reinforce the feeling of sadness and misery. As a rule, there are no accent colors on these paintings, and the composition is based on a variation of shades.
Nevertheless, something is this piece attracts more attention than colorful paintings surrounding it. Figures are drawn in a style that evokes associations with mannerism and El Greco: tall and solid like statues against the calm seascape. The tragedy is symbolical; we do not know for sure what happened to the family. Instead of choosing one particular tragic narrative scene, the artist decided to focus on the moment and those elements that make it tragic.
Man and woman are standing silently against each other. Although they share same heavy thoughts, their poses, faces, and the distance between them suggests alienation. They can neither comfort each other nor find a solution. The boy knows that something terrible is happening, but he cannot understand why his parents have nothing to say. He places his hand on the man and looks pleadingly to the woman. Our imagination can offer many ideas of what could happen to the family, but each of them contains the feeling of great loss and inability to cope with it.
The second painting, Family of Saltimbanques (1905), continues the tradition of family portraits (and especially Picasso’s interest in miserable and outcast families) but does not belong to the blue period. In fact, one cannot say for sure whether it is a sad moment in a family’s life. This painting belongs to the Circus Period that started in 1904 and is in general closer to reality than symbolic paintings of the Blue Period. Family of Saltimbanques was influenced by the place called Bateau-Lavoir – a refuge of painters, sculptors, artists, dressmakers, washerwomen, and barrow boys. Fernande Olivier, who met Picasso in this place, recalled that “its inhabitants used to meet at the only source of water, carrying a large pitcher…” (Carmean, 1980).
Besides, Picasso visited circus quite often at that time. He would meet with the clowns, the jugglers, and horse riders after the performances, talk to them and make sketches. A jester in the red costume is probably El tio Pepe don José, a real performer whose image reoccurs frequently in Picasso’s drawings and sketches. Other characters, such as the young acrobats and the seated woman, were inspired by various individual studies and works of other artists. That is why Family of Saltimbanques is perceived as the composition of different characters rather than a family. Although they were inspired by real people, the saltimbanques became symbols without meaning – “emblems of the people in Picasso’s life” (Carmean, 1980).
