Picasso created Girl on a Ball in 1905 during his Rose Period, at a time when he was living at the dilapidated Bateau-Lavoir in the Montmartre area of Paris.

[1] From late 1904 to early 1905, Picasso focused his works on a single motif about the life of a travelling circus that he developed for a large composition at the end of 1904.

The scene focuses on a young girl gracefully balancing on a ball to the left of the composition, while to the right, a powerful athlete is sitting on a cube.

The Pushkin Museum states that, "The artist is reflecting not so much on the fate of people in the arts, as on the universal laws of balance and interaction, harmony and contrast.

By using ash pink and blue shades for both the figures and the background, Picasso conveyed the emotional state of the circus artists, suggesting that they are immersed in their own world.

That is why the Young Acrobat on a Ball stands out among Picasso's creations as the seed of many further developments in the area of plastic form and imagery.Ivan Morozov acquired the painting from the gallery of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in Paris in 1913.