At the Circus: Group with Horse and Clown (347 Series, B.1485), 1968

"At the Circus: Group with Horse and Clown (B.1485)" is an etching on BFK Rives created by Pablo Picasso in 1968, from his renowned '347 Series'. From the edition of 68, the art is signed 'Picasso' lower right and annotated lower left. The artwork is framed in a custom closed-corner gold-leaf frame and has a framed size of 31 x 27". The artwork ships framed and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. "At the Circus: Group with Horse and Clown (B.1485)" belongs to the celebrated "347 Series," the extraordinary body of etchings that defined the artist’s late printmaking. Produced between March and October of 1968, the series became a remarkable stream of consciousness through which Picasso revisited the people, passions, art, and memories that had shaped his life. Here, Picasso returns to one of his most enduring subjects: the circus. A lively gathering of figures surrounds a horse and clown. Rather than presenting a conventional narrative, Picasso allows these characters to coexist within a theatrical world of spectacle and imagination. The clown and circus performers recall imagery that had fascinated him since his early career, particularly the saltimbanques of his Rose Period. A Cupid introduces themes of love and desire, while a watchful owl, an animal closely associated with Picasso and frequently appearing in his art, adds another layer of observation to the scene. Throughout the "347 Series," Picasso increasingly positioned the artist as a spectator or voyeur rather than the central protagonist. At the Circus captures this sense of looking: figures gather, perform, observe, and interact, yet no single story reaches a conclusion. Instead, the composition unfolds like a memory recalled in fragments. By bringing together the circus, classical symbolism, familiar animals, and human spectators, Picasso transforms a scene of entertainment into a deeply personal meditation on spectacle, memory, and the pleasure of looking. In printmaking, the "347 Series" was the undertaking which defined late Picasso. This prodigious outpouring of work, dating from March 16th–October 5th, 1968, deals with all of his old themes and fantasies, adding an obsession newly central in the late sixties, the artist as voyeur. It is in this role, rather than that of a protagonist, that the artist figures in these fantastic narration's. The series has been described as taking the form of a stream-of-consciousness epic. There is a suggestion of narratives throughout the series; however, there is never a point where a story comes to completion or where suggested desire is realized. There are faces we know, tales we have seen, and the work of great masters is recognizably revisited, but all without a clear endpoint. These prints become instead a stroll through the mind and memories at the end of Picasso’s much-lived life. A note about the technical production of these plates - to work with full freedom and concentration, Picasso had his printers, the brothers Crommelynck, bring the etching plates and hand press to his farmhouse near Cannes.