A groundbreaking study of Pablo Picasso, it documents all Picasso's major works from 1917 to 1937 including La Suite Voillard from the National Gallery of Canada. The title intends to be a metaphor. Harlequin can be anything you wish, a chameleon who constantly changes look and is never where we expect to find him, and Picasso, who could contemporaneously adopt the styles of cubism, neoclassicism, surrealism and expressionism, had many things in common with this legendary theatre character. Defined by some as a cannibal, a ruthless monster who devoured whatever he came across, Picasso was surprisingly all-inclusive. As a consequence he was, for a long time, an inevitable point of reference for many younger artists.