Curator, Anne Umland: What sort of sound would this picture make?
And who are the Three Musicians? One thing they could be is a representation of Picasso himself and some of his friends.
The costumes are connected to an old Italian theater tradition with set characters. In the center, the figure wearing a diamond pattern costume is the character of Harlequin, someone who likes to break the rules. The colors red and yellow are those of the Spanish flag, and Picasso was born in Spain. So it is possible that the center figure is a stand-in for Picasso himself.
But there is a fourth subject. Look over to the left. What do you start to see? There are three furry legs and a little furry tail. Picasso has put a dog under the table, which just always makes me laugh so much.
What the dog doesn't have here is a head, but if you look up in that corner, and it's very dark, so you have to look very hard, you can see that there's the shadow of a dog with its two pointy ears and an open mouth.