[Payaso] Ensayos de Perlimplín ([Clown] Perlimplín essay)

In early 1929, before his transcendental voyage to the United States and Cuba, Federico García Lorca was in Madrid rehearsing his “erotic hallelujah” Amor de don Perlimplín con Belisa en su jardín (The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden), a work that would end up banned by Primo de Rivera. As the inscription indicates, this Pierrot was drawn during rehearsals for the play and, as he had done on other occasions with other sketches, the poet drew it with whatever he had to hand – in this case a red and a blue pencil.
The collection that the piece comes from, and where it had remained until the Museo Reina Sofía acquired it, adds additional colour to the drawing’s artistic interest. Its owner was Josefina Attard, better known as Fina de Calderón, and nicknamed “the girl with the crutches” by Lorca, a friend of her family. Fina dedicated her poem Fuego, grito, luna (Fire, Cry, Moon), to Federico and in return he gave her the drawing, as can be seen in the inscription in the top right. Characterised by a freshness and spontaneity of execution, the drawing is highly representative of its author’s output.

Paloma Esteban Leal