Although Kahnweiler supported French rather than German political goals during the war, the French Government insists on selling his stock of paintings as reparations. The art dealer L once Rosenberg accepts the responsibility for organizing the sales catalogue, and serves as the appraiser for the Uhde and four Kahnweiler auctions. The works in this sale bring 216,335 francs. The dealer is able to buy back some of the works involved. Picasso is prolific at Fontainebleau , producing more paintings during his stay there than in the year to date.
Most pieces are in the sculptural Neoclassical style.
Picasso here leapt over Poussin , back to a Greece which he rejuvenated as he had done at Gosol. The subject again recalls his collaboration with the Ballets Russes, particularly some of the studies of Harlequins and Pierrots for the ballet Pulcinella . Larger than nature, the figures are inscribed in a rectangular framework and composed of interlocking planes which give them the appearance of perpetual movement. They are painted flat against a warm brown background which throws whites, blues and the red and yellow lozenges of the harlequin s costume into stark relief. Each shape becomes an ideogram, a significant 'sign' of reality.