Pierrot and Harlequin (Mardi Gras)

Also known as Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, this oil on canvas depicts the two stock characters of the commedia dell'arte: Pierrot, at left, in a loose white costume with ruffles at the neck and wrists and a white conical cap, and Harlequin, at right, in a vivid red-and-black diamond-patterned suit, one hand on his hip. The two models are traditionally identified as Cézanne's son, Paul, and his friend Louis Guillaume. Cézanne treats the carnival subject with characteristic gravity, building the figures from carefully constructed planes of colour and giving the scene a sculptural solidity rather than festive movement. The painting passed through several notable collections — Victor Chocquet, the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, and the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin — before being nationalized by the Soviet state after the October Revolution. It is now held at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.