Le Tricone: The First Picasso

Also on view at the New-York Historical Society is Picasso’s first work, Le Tricone, a canvas stage curtain. Originally 50 feet long and completed in 1919, it was commissioned by the Paris-based Ballets Russes, the most influential ballet company of the early twentieth century. This particular ballet’s name, Le Tricone, means The Three-Cornered Hat.The curtain depicts a Spanish scene with a bullring and spectators. It shows the influence of El Greco and Goya. Picasso was known to say: “Good artists copy; great artists steal.”Cut down to roughly 19 x 20 feet, the curtain had hung in the hallway of the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building for more than half a century. In 2005, it was given to the New York Landmarks Conservancy as a “Gift to the City.”In 2014, with much fanfare, Le Tricone was brought to yet another new home, the New-York Historical Society.The exhibit is ongoing.