1917, The first pochoir by Picasso

Picasso (1881-1973) used the pochoir as a technique to promote artworks. He was the first of many famous contemporary artists such as

Georges Braque (1882-1963),
Marc Chagall (1887-1985),
André Derain (1880-1954),
Raoul Dufy (1877-1953),
Fernand Léger (1881-1955),
Henri Matisse (1869-1954),
Joan Miro (1893-1983),
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920),
Georges Rouault (1871-1958),
Maurice Utrillo (1883 – 1955),
Jacques Villon (1875-1963),
Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979),
Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958) and
Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968).

Picasso used this medium from 1917 (The Chinese Conjurer/ Clown) till 1963 when he was 82 years old (Les bleus de Barcelone 1963) . He used the pochoir as means of reproduction more than 300 times, more than Matisse (45 pochoirs during his lifetime) and Van Dongen (90 pochoir book illustrations)

 

Costume de Chinois du Ballet “Parade”

The ballet “Parade” represents a historical collaboration between several of the leading artistic minds of the early twentieth century: Erik Satie, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Léonide Massine, and Serge Diaghilev, and is famous, not only for its contents and its music, but also for its magnificent costumes designed by Picasso. It is the 1917 ballet “Parade” – the first of the modern ballets -, that marks Picasso’s entry into the public and bourgeois institutions of ballet and theatre and presents Cubism on the stage for the first time.
The first performance of the Russian ballet, was called Parade at Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris. The cover of the program guide was The Chinese Clown, the first pochoir by Picasso.

 

Picasso and Olga in front of the poster of « The Chinese Clown »

The costume Çhines Clown’ based on a design by Picasso,
now at the Museum Pompidou (Paris)