When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become a monk, you'll end up as the Pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. (McNeese, 2006, p.105)
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (1881-1973) is one of the main representatives of the 20th century art, and the co-founder along with Georges Braque of Cubism. With significant contribution to the formation and development of modern and contemporary art, Picasso is one of the most prominent artists of the previous century, an artistic mastermind who managed to climax in the contemporary art world (Charles, 2011).
Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain, on October 25 1881. He painted from a very young age and at 14 joined the Barcelona School of Fine Arts. In 1897, he got the gold medal for the first painting he presented there. He signed his first paintings as Ruiz Blasco, but in 1901 began to use the name of his mother (Picasso). His work is usually divided into three distinct periods: the Blue Period (1901-1904), the Pink Period (1905-1907), and the Cubist period (1907-1915) (Charles, 2011).
Blue or Blue period (1901-1904)
Introduction
Around October 1900, Picasso along with his colleague and friend Carlos Casagemas came in Montmartre to experience Paris, where they stayed about two months. Then Picasso and Casagemas returned to Spain. Picasso tried without success to give courage to his friend after the love failure Casagemas had experienced, and then departed for Madrid. Casagemas returned to Paris, tried to shoot the woman he loved and committed suicide (Chevalier, 1969). Picasso was deeply affected by the suicide of his friend, after which followed the “Blue Period” (between 1901 and 1904). During this period Picasso moved back and forth between Barcelona and Paris, where he changed for a short period of 2-3 years the style of his art. In the middle of year 1901, he began to sign his works mainly with the mother’s surname instead of his father, i.e. as Pablo Picasso (Glozer, 1992).
Blue Period Summary of Distinctive Features
Picasso’s paintings of the Blue period are characterized by the blue color or by blue color’s shades and symbolize an emotionally charged period of his life. Some of the most famous works belong to this period, depicting acrobats, harlequins (clowns), prostitutes, beggars and artists. The blue period includes paintings mainly completed in Paris but is more influenced by Spanish painting (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967).
After a series of “dirty” with a kind of chiaroscuro designs in 1902-1903 directly linked to the rather unsuccessful outcome of Picasso’s 3rd trip to Paris in autumn 1902, the phase that follows is marked by his stay in Barcelona (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967). Here, the squalid aspects of the women’s world lose their exclusivity, while young couples and poor elders also make their appearance in Picasso’s paintings. Volumes become stronger, “inflated” and tied to the earth, referring directly to the plastic of sculptor Aristide Maillol (Chevalier, 1969).
Works such as, “The Blind Man’s Meal” (1903), “The Old Guitarist” (late 1903-early 1904), and the “Poor by the Sea” (1903) are some of the most representative examples in relation to Picasso’s goals during the Blue Period, which clearly under the influence of El Greco among others, seem to find their fullest formulation in Picasso’s “La Vie” (1903) painting (Chevalier, 1969).
Blue Period Influences and Characteristics Paintings
Blue and green hues classified as cold tones, come to pass an intense spirituality and a sense of privacy in the paintings of the Blue period. Frugalness, simplicity, monochrome, harmony, desperate figures, pass through messages that concern in a climate charged wistfully (Chevalier, 1969).
Blue is the color associated with sadness, love, the divine and the super-natural during the 19th century. Since the work of Picasso has generally an autobiographical character, the choice of blue may be explained by the difficult emotional phase Picasso was at the time experiencing (Glozer, 1992).
During Picasso’s Blue period, abstract art, such as we know it today was not yet existent. Picasso, like many other young artists of his time, left Impressionism behind him in the search of the “new”. Searching for one another more direct visual language, the blue period marks the end of a development, in which young Pablo tried to present through his art mainly the solving of the problems and limitations of classicism that would eventually culminate in cubism and to the first steps towards modern abstract art (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967).
Picasso’s canvases take a deep and significant change in tone. Instead of the bright mixtures of colors he used to paint with, his Blue period paintings are created with monochromatic shades of blue and blue-green and casual warm colors. The theme of this period were poor people in the streets, beggars, famous portraits, harlequins, prostitutes, drunkards, the sick, the elderly, lovers and the poor scrawny. Paintings mirror alienation, poverty and psychological depression. The presence of certain traditions of medieval Spanish art is obvious in this period of Picasso’s work; blatant is the Gothic movement’s influence on Picasso’s work of the time and catalytic is effect of El Greco’s heritage that Picasso “rediscovered” in Toledo (Chevalier, 1969).
Picasso characterized El Greco as the “father” of painting. Indeed, some sketches and paintings of Picassos’ early period mimic the idiom of Greco, while particularly evident is, as explained previously, El Greco’s influence on Picasso’s Blue period with the most distinctive one being the Burial of Casagemas (detailed below), which is inspired by El Greco’s painting “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz” (painted during the period 1586-1588) (Glozer, 1992).
Several Picasso’s paintings of the Blue period are inspired by the death of Casagemas. Among them is the 1901 pseudo-hagiography, entitled “Evocation” (The Burial of Casagemas (L’enterrement Casagemas)), where Casagemas is depicted with arms outstretched in a posture reminiscent of Christ, being taken to Heaven on a white horse. There, Casagemas is greeted by three prostitutes dressed only with colored stockings, symbolizing Picasso’s mocking of not only the Trinity, but also of the pagan three Graces. It was then that Picasso began to paint mainly with melancholic tones, using the deep blue. His paintings often depict human passions in a tender and sentimental way, although sometimes in a particularly scathing manner (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967).
Picasso’s enigmatic 1903 painting, “La Vie” (Life), is the derivative of the peak of this period. Blue is dominant even on the faces, where melancholy loneliness, and fear are the prominent feelings. The pair embraces tightly and the man, which according to the prevailing version is Picasso's friend Casagemas, shows the mother with the child (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967). This move and what it symbolizes still remains a query. Behind the figures in the front, are paintings with figures in fetal position. To work has a poetic content and wanders in the paths of love, the questions about life and death and the tender state of maternity. The painting may represent the different stages of life, or may represent the life of Picasso (Chevalier, 1969).
The influence of Vincent Van Gogh is clearly visible in the “Portrait of Jaime Sabartes” (Le bock (Portrait de Jaime Sabartés)), created in 1902 and distinguished for its heavy texture, dark outlines and color contrasts (Chevalier, 1969).
The accuracy with which Picasso reproduces the style of Paul Gauguin, in the 1901-1902 painting “Femme au café” (Absinthe Drinker) is strange, though it has to be noted that Picasso still manages to add his own “thin line”.
Interesting is also the 1903 depiction of the young reveler Spanish artist, Angel Fernandez de Soto (Portrait bleu de Angel Fernández de Soto (The Absinthe Drinker)), in a bar with his pipe in one hand and a glass of absinthe in front of him. Absinthe was a drink produced via the distillation of an aromatic herbaceous plant of wormwood that had a green shade (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967). Absinthe was such a strong drink that is was not drunk straight. It was very popular throughout the 19th and early 20th century, having displaced all other drinks. In Paris, absinthe was the eminent drink in artistic circles, and thus, was illustrated in many painters’ work (Chevalier, 1969).
Significant impact on Picasso’s Blue period was also his visit of the women’s Prison Saint-Lazare in Paris. Source of inspiration and creativity, became nun- jailers, outcasts, motherhood inside prison, prisoners who were allowed keep their babies in prison (Glozer, 1992).
Several of his works also provide a vivid picture of the nightlife in Montmartre, in the early 20th century, a life style, in which young Picasso was not a stranger. Picasso at the time would occasionally continue to mimic the style of other artists, but will never assume ownership of any these styles (Chevalier, 1969).
Analysis of Blue Period Paintings
Femme Aux Bras Croises (1901-1902)
The particular is an oil painting on canvas that depicts a woman with the hands crossed in front of her breast, staring off into space. It is believed that the particular woman is from the period when Picasso visited Prison Saint-Lazare in Paris. In particular, she is believed to be a Saint-Lazare hospital’s inmate, who committed suicide (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967).
As all Picasso’s Blue period paintings, Femme Aux Bras Croises conveys a sense of isolation. Via the use of the blue cold color, which is darker providing a relatively low illumination in the woman’s surroundings but acquires a significantly brighter light when used to portrait her face, the feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and pane are exacerbated. Her crossed hands also symbolize her isolation, while additionally express her locking out of society (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967).
Blue Nude (1902)
The particular is an oil painting on canvas that depicts a naked woman, who with her back to the viewers is hugging her legs. Though by this posture the deepest felling are provoked to the viewers, the woman’s actual emotional state is unknown; whether she is sad, happy or upset is hidden from viewer. However, her whole posture brings about a sense of melancholy, again characteristic of Picasso’s emotional state at the time (Glozer, 1992).
Though once more, Picasso chose to use only one color, blue, he managed still managed by the effective use of blue’s shades, which varied from light to dark blue, to provide the desired result of triggering depression. The simple design and flattened monochromatic form are certainly evidence of Picasso’s ability to create the most dramatic effect via deduction and simplicity (Glozer, 1992).
The Old Guitarist (late 1903-early 1904)
The Old Guitarist constitutes one of Picasso’s most successful depictions of the lower class people. The guitarist’s solitary and skeletal figure and bended sideways posture, which is rooted in Spanish art, provided with the most effective symbolic result in terms of the old man’s succumbing to blindness, fate, and poverty, while his analogy to street beggars managed to have a profound impact to its viewer in the years to come (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967).
The painting is an oil one and was drawn on a wood panel. The painting is dominated by the use of the blue color, whose shades are used to paint the old man’s skin, clothing, as well as his surroundings in an effort to provide the intended feeling of loneliness, and melancholy (feelings shared by Picasso due to the death of his friend Casagemas, explained previously) (Chevalier, 1969).
The dramatic effect Picasso aimed at is also achieved via the exaggeration of details, the intended both prolonging of the blind man’s face and the enlargement of his feet. It has to be noted that blind man’s elongated features and posture again show Picasso’s influence by El Greco’s figures (Chevalier, 1969).
The only change in the painting’s color is presented in the brown shades of the guitar, which via its large and round shape is aimed at filling in both symbolically and physically the space surrounding the lonely old man (Chevalier, 1969).
The use of a blind man is analogous to the general tendency of the Symbolist movement in literature of the time, which also used sightless people, who were, however, empowered with the ability of inner vision (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967).
Overall, the painting provides a sense of multi-dimensionality, extra glossiness, and of a skilful and precise use of symmetry, space, shapes, and lines (Daix, & Boudaille, 1967).
Conclusions
Picasso’s Blue period is characterized by paintings that express an emotional stressful period for Picasso. His paintings are realistic (only later will Picasso’s paintings become more deductive and abstract), have three-dimensions and depth, and while though mostly created in Paris they are more inspired/ influenced by Spanish painting. Theirs topics are unusual and mainly include outcasts, prostitutes, harlequins, members of the art world.
References
Charles, V. (2011). Pablo Picasso. Parkstone International.
Chevalier, D. (1969). Picasso: the blue and rose periods. Crown Publishers.
Daix, P., & Boudaille, G. (1967). Picasso: the Blue and Rose Periods. A Catalogue Raisonne, 1900-1906. Evelyn, Adams & Mackay.
Glozer, L. (1992). Picasso: Masterpieces of the Blue Period : 38 Paintings. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc.
McNeese, T. (2006). Pablo Picasso. Infobase Publishing.
