1912
Paper, gouache, water-colour.
62 х 48

This graphic picture repeats a scene that is a familiar one in Somov's works: a lady and a gentleman in a park. But here they are replaced by fancy-dress doubles, the characters of the comedy del arte, Harlequin and Columbine. They make a show of standing or theatrically embracing each other, and all of a sudden it becomes clear that they are just cardboard dolls, painted tailor's dummies. Explosions of fireworks bathe the frozen figures in fantastic light, snatching them out of darkness. The vision acquires an instant existence, lights up with miraculous bright colours. But carnival passions flare up and disappear together with the dying sparks of fiery crackers. The symbolist poet M.Kuzmin found an exact verbal formula to express the world of Somov's pictures: "Anxiety, irony, doll-like theatricality of the world, the comedy of eroticism, the garishness of carnival freaks... suddenly dismal sinking into death… deadliness and frightfulness of amicable smiles are the pathos of the entire series of Somov's works. Oh, isn't he funny, this gallant Somov! What a terrifying mirror he presents at a laughing party!"