Pablo Picasso

Picasso created this drawing while observing rehearsals of the Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo. His association with the itinerant ballet company began in 1917, when he designed sets and costumes for Parade. Represented in abbreviated yet remarkably descriptive lines, the languorous dark- haired dancer at the barre has been identified as Serge Lifar, while the seated blond man is probably a Ukrainian dancer known as Khoer. Picasso concealed an earlier version of Lifar’s right leg with extensive crosshatching between the two figures.