The mass of this sculpture is sometimes round—at other times, it is reduced to angular surfaces. Arabesques carry these patterns to create spatial unity. Lipchitz accentuated the transitions, developing a flowing three-dimensional rhythm. The fluid lines of the acrobat’s legs and the horse’s delicate right leg send your eye in sweeping motion. The subject of circus and cabaret figures had great appeal during this period. The owner of this Lipchitz notes: There is a Picasso… Acrobat en Repose, a very famous painting which actually Vladimir Horowitz had in his collection. And if you look at that and if you look at the Lipchitz Acrobat on Horseback, you could almost think it is the same… figure that they have been thinking of….They were looking for those models which were different than what was going on in Europe… a lot of people painting pictures of famous people….And this was not about that at all, this was really about the masses and the circus and the acrobats. All about the masses. That is what, I think, they were trying to do. The regal strutting horse also recalls both pre-Classical sculpture and Italian Renaissance equestrian sculpture. Lipchitz collected many kinds of art, including Greek and Renaissance pieces and works depicting riders on prancing horses. Acrobat on Horseback is a formidable accomplishment for a 23-year-old artist who had arrived in Paris from Lithuania just five years earlier with no academic training. This work marks the end of the sculptor’s early period of traditionally based idealized naturalism.
			Jacques Lipchitz Acrobat on Horseback, 1914 Bronze 21 3/4 in. (55.2 cm) Private Collection Photo courtesy of Conner-Rosenkranz, New York All Rights Reserved