Here Picasso pictures six traveling acrobats, or saltimbanques, lost in a barren landscape. Some are dressed as traditional circus characters. The man at far left in the costume of multicolored triangles is Harlequin. He loves Columbine, the woman in the lower right. The man in red is dressed as the jester, or fool. The little girl is a dancer and the two boys are dressed as tumbers. The older boy carries a drum that he will beat to attract a crowd, although here an audience is nowhere to be seen.
Performers without an audience; Picasso's sad figures fill much of the canvas, and the empty space around them gives the impression that they are in almost endless expanse of desert. Here and there, the artist mixed the color of the sky with the earth tones. The lively marks that represent clouds were done in the same manner, in contrast to the detailed painting of the figures. The result is that the sky and earth seem to be one, and the saltimbanques are out of place in the landscape. They would float if Picasso had not provided a few shadows to hold them to the ground.
This surrounding emptiness reflects the moods of the figures. The little ballerina holds Harlequin's hand, but the others make little contact with each other. Instead, they look away from one another, their eyes blackened in shadow. What should be a happy, lively troupe looks lost and sad.
Family of Saltimbanques was Picasso's first large painting. It is more than six feel high and seven feel long. As the artist developed the composition, he tried out different ideas directly on the canvas.
