"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." - Pablo Picasso

Created in 1966, this wonderful color lithograph captures Picasso's whimsical childlike style characterized by its vibrant colors, playful forms, distorted perspectives, and a sense of joyful spontaneity. The colorful face of the clown takes center stage with the orange ruff determining the border of the subject's face. The similarly colored orange nose zig-zags down the center creating further movement in the work. Simple black dots are suggestive of the nostrils and a black line synched at the edges smiles placidly. A soft band of pink across the lips adds personality to the clown's face. The cheeks are graced with beautiful blue and aquamarine hues, and the eyes wink out with charming lavender and navy pupils. Throughout his career and life, Picasso was interested by clowns and the circus, and this lithograph is a wonderful example of the joy the clown seemed to exert for Picasso.

This lithograph is also unique when considering the textual elements in the piece. Picasso has written words on the lithograph describing the title, date and year of the exhibition, and the text alone, can be considered art in its own right. The colors and free-flowing style fit well with the subject of the clown's face and can be enjoyed for their own merits.

This lithograph was created for an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1966 entitled ’60 Years of Graphic Art.' Signed 'Picasso' in pencil in the lower right and numbered from the edition of 100, this wonderful work truly captures the playful spirit for which Picasso was so well known.