Pierot 1836

Cyprián Majerník painted this Pierrot, with oil on cardboard, sometime before his death in 1945. The figure of Pierrot, traditionally a character of melancholy and longing, takes on a particularly haunting quality in light of the artist’s tragic biography. Majerník was working in Paris in the interwar years and was exposed to Cubism and Surrealism. Returning to his native Slovakia, he found himself increasingly isolated in the interwar years as the country moved towards authoritarianism, and he was driven to suicide during the Second World War. The harlequin costume might signal the artist’s critique of social convention, or perhaps his own sense of alienation. But to understand this work better, we would need to examine the cultural field in which Majerník was working and the institutional constraints he faced, consulting archives, exhibition catalogues, and other historical sources. Only then can we fully understand the significance of this painting.