Harlequin (Arlequin)

Harlequin (Arlequin), painted around 1880 and now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, belongs to Cézanne's recurring engagement with the commedia dell'arte figure of the harlequin — the masked trickster in diamond-patterned costume. He painted harlequins and pierrots both early and late in his career, perhaps drawn to the figure's theatrical unreality as a counterweight to his intense observation of the empirical world. The harlequin allowed him to paint a human figure in highly patterned clothing — the diamond costume a grid of color analogous to the geometric structures he found in landscape and still life. The NGA's version dates to a period when Cézanne was developing his most systematic analytical approach.

Oil on canvas with the harlequin's diamond-patterned costume providing a geometric color structure that suits Cézanne's analytical method. The figure's form is built through the same parallel strokes he applied to apples and Mont Sainte-Victoire, treating the costumed human as an opportunity for rigorous color-plane construction.