Picasso's Blue Period
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The Blue Period of Picasso consists of work he created between 1901 and 1904, somber paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors. This period's starting point is uncertain; it may have begun in Spain in the spring of 1901, or in Paris in the second half of the year.[1] In choosing austere color and sometimes doleful subject matter—prostitutes and beggars are frequent subjects—Picasso was influenced by a trip through Spain and by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas, who took his life at the L’Hippodrome Café in Paris, France by shooting himself in the right temple on February 17, 1901. Hélène Seckel writes that, since he had begun achieving some success, "it is difficult to say why the twenty-year-old Picasso abandoned the dazzling palette and exuberant subject matter that had already come to characterize his work. According to the artist, the suicide[...]marked the sudden onset of the blue period: 'I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas's death.'"[2] Starting that fall he painted several posthumous portraits of Casagemas, culminating in the gloomy allegorical painting La Vie, painted in 1903 and now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.[3]
The same mood pervades the well-known etching The Frugal Repast (1904), which depicts a blind man and a sighted woman, both emaciated, seated at a nearly bare table. Blindness is a recurrent theme in Picasso's works of this period, also represented in The Blindman's Meal (1903, the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and in the portrait of Celestina (1903). Other frequent subjects are artists, acrobats and harlequins. The harlequin, a comedic character usually depicted in checkered patterned clothing, became a personal symbol for Picasso.
The paintings of this period are now some of his most popular works, although he had difficulty selling them at the time. Although inspired by Spain they were painted in Paris. This period symbolizes his time of depression.[citation needed]
Possibly his most well known work from this period is The Old Guitarist. Other major works include Portrait of Soler (1903) and Las dos hermanas (1904). Picasso's Blue Period preceded his Rose Period.
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- Cirlot, Juan-Eduardo (1972). Picasso: Birth of a Genius. New York and Washington: Praeger.
- Wattenmaker, Richard J.; Distel, Anne, et al. (1993). Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-40963-7
| Pablo Picasso works and periods |
|---|
| Periods: Blue (1901–1904), Rose (1905–1907), African (1908–1909), Analytic cubism (1909–1912), Synthetic cubism (1912–1919) |
| List of works: 1889-1900, 1901-1910, 1911-1920, 1921-1930, 1931-1940, 1941-1950, 1951-1960, 1961-1970, 1971-1973 |
