Picasso’s evolving style can best be illustrated by showcasing the
different self-portraits he made during his lifetime. But out of all of those,
one really stands out, if only by it’s dominating hue. This 1901 self-portrait was
made when Picasso was only 20 years old. The painting is flat, grim and, of course, blue.
These characteristics, depressing and blue, will be shared by other artworks
made between 1901 and 1904. This early period in Picasso’s artistic development will be crucial;
so much so that it will be given a name: The Blue Period.
Only a year before the beginning of the Blue Period, at 19 years old,
Picasso left Spain and arrived in Paris. He wasn’t alone; he was accompanied by his friend and fellow
artist Carles Casagemas. Both friends now in Paris, they were amazed by its extravagance,
its decadence and its debauchery. Casagemas eventually fell madly in love with a woman,
Germaine Gargallo, but she would never love him back.
On February 17th 1901, while Picasso was in back in Barcelona, Casagemas organized a party
at a cafe in Paris. His friends and, of course, Germaine were invited. After delivering a speech
in front of his friends, and after Germaine turned down his marriage proposal, Casagemas
pulled out a pistol, shot Germaine and then turned the weapon against himself and shot his
right temple. Germaine would survive the attack, but Casagemas would die at the young age of 20.
This would be what triggered Picasso’s Blue Period.
Picasso first painted The Death of Casagemas, the portrait of his dead friend, lit by candlelight.
You can only see the body’s lifeless head marked by the fatal wound. Picasso would then reinterpret
the same artwork; Casagemas in His Coffin. Here, perhaps because he’s about to get buried,
the candle is out. The painting is much darker and the dominance of blues is making its appearance.
Blue is therefore, to Picasso, a tremendously depressing color. His use of blue as catharsis
would last 3 years. He would depict a broad range of subjects and themes,
all of which were related to despair: Loneliness, melancholy, poverty,
old-age and, of course, death. Women, as always for Picasso, would also occupy
a significant role in his blue paintings, especially through the figure of the mother.
Perhaps the most famous painting from Picasso’s Blue Period is The Old Guitarist,
made near the end of the period. He was extremely poor at that time, he could barely afford food,
and, because he couldn’t afford canvases, he often had to paint over some of his
old paintings. This explains why, through the Old Guitarist, we can see a different figure.
We see a blind old man and we can tell that he’s probably a beggar from the
clothes he’s wearing. He’s playing a guitar which contrasts with the rest of the image
as it’s the only element in the painting which isn’t blue. The composition relies
heavily on the triangle formed by the guitar, the performer’s hands and his head. It’s also
dynamically fractured by many diagonal lines, the guitar forming the main line.
Here, Picasso ties in many of his blue period themes in one painting:
poverty, loneliness, despair and old-age.
But this painting could be more than the simple representation of an old beggar playing guitar
to afford his next meal. It could be an allegory to the artist’s life. After all,
what’s the difference between the beggar playing guitar for his next meal and Picasso painting an
artwork to feed himself? The guitarist clings to his guitar; it’s, in a way, sacred to him as he
depends on it to live. Picasso, on the other hand, depends on his paintbrushes to sustain himself.
Another way in which both artists are similar is in their loneliness. Of course,
the artist’s life can be lonely, but there’s a certain paradox in this loneliness. Oftentimes,
artists create alone, but they can only survive through the appreciation of others;
either by dropping a coin or two for the beggar, or buying one of Picasso’s painting.
The Old Guitarist is a masterpiece, both in content and in form,
but I don’t feel like it’s the artwork that most accurately represents Picasso’s
Blue Period. That honor goes to La vie (or the life) made in May 1903.
We can understand this picture in terms of pairs. You first have the pair of lovers;
the young man and the young woman. Picasso initially intended the man
to be a self-portrait, but then changed it to be a portrait of his friend Casagemas,
two years after his suicide. The woman is probably Germaine and both lovers are represented naked and
cuddling. Picasso painted his friend as he always wanted to live: with Germaine.
The gesture Casagemas is doing with his left hand is also very important. It’s a religious symbol
associated to a phrase Jesus told Mary Magdalene after resurrecting: Noli me tangere. It can be
translated to touch me not or stop clinging to me. This could be interpreted, in a way, as Casagemas
telling his family, his friends or even Picasso to move on from his death; to stop mourning.
The second pair, the one facing the couple, is the woman and her child. It’s a bit harder to
tell what this could mean. It echoes the theme of motherhood that Picasso exploited during the
Blue Period, but it’s contrasted with the couple. Perhaps this could be related to
Freud’s Oedipus Complex, which first appeared in his 1899 The Interpretation of Dreams.
The third pair, in the middle, is the two paintings, resting one on top of the other.
Both subjects are curled up, in a position of distress similar to Van Gogh’s Sorrowing Old Man.
But the difference between the two paintings is that one of them represents a pair, while
the other shows a lonely figure. The elevated artwork, even though it’s a very gloomy picture,
is somehow brighter and happier than the one at the bottom. The juxtaposed paintings are
showing the contrast between experiencing sorrow with and without emotional support.
La vie is a great synthesis of Picasso’s Blue Period since it encompasses its main themes:
Women, motherhood, loneliness, melancholy and death. Arts also
take a central place in this composition, as they did in Picasso’s life. Casagemas,
the man who ultimately brought about the Blue Period, also comes back from the dead and
finds himself represented in the painting. But he isn’t coming back to haunt Picasso,
but to come to terms with him. This cathartic exercise will eventually shape Picasso and have
him move away from the Blue Period, into his Rose Period and then, famously, to cubism.
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