Juggler

1949–1950

Oil on academy board (later mounted to hardboard)

40.6 × 33 cm (16 × 13 in)

SEE IT IN PERSON

● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 23, South Wall

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

A yellow-hatted figure with a blue face and swirling eyes juggles several multicolored balls. The effect is both comical and unnerving. When Dr. Barnes bought Juggler in 1950, he wrote to a friend: "I strongly urge you to arrange to come to Philadelphia... to look at a large number of paintings done by Hankins... He is the most exciting painter I have seen anywhere in the past several years—exciting because he is not only a real painter but as individual an artist as Matisse, Klee or Miró. He is also as definitely modern as any of these contemporaries, and I believe he is destined to go places."

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