Pablo Picasso - The Blue Period

Between 1901 and 1904 Picasso produced a series of paintings marked by his use of the color blue, signaling a transition in his style from classicism to a more abstract style of painting. He began to replace warm scenes of contemporary Parisian life with paintings of beggars, blind men, and poor street artists, often emaciated and standing against vague or empty backgrounds. Though not particularly successful at the time, these paintings would go on to become some of Picasso's most popular, and valuable, works.

The dramatic change in Picasso's style took place not long after his close friend, Carlos

Casagemas, rejected by his married lover, committed suicide. This has led to the assumption that his friend's death was the catalyst for the change. Picasso himself later recalled, "I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas' death". However, many scholars have since called the veracity of this assumption into question.

Picasso and Casagemas had known each other since 1899, having met at a cafe for artists and intellectuals in Barcelona. Together, they traveled to Paris in 1900. While there, both suffered the sting of abject poverty and rejection. By the time of Casagemas' suicide, Picasso had returned to Barcelona, though he finally moved to Paris for good in 1904.

Though it's questionable whether Casagemas' death was the actual impetus for the blue period, the shock and horror that Picasso felt at the death of his friend is clearly evident in several portraits he did of him, including, "The Death of Casagemas". Though this painting didn't display the resignation and silent mourning his later Blue Period paintings would, it remains a stark example of Picasso's mood in those turbulent, and transformative, years.