Blue Period
At the time, having renounced his classical and traditional education and searching for fame, Picasso and his friend, Carles Casagemas moved to Paris. Unfortunately, just a year later, Casagemas became hopelessly miserable from a failed love affair and committed suicide. Picasso was greatly afflicted by this horrible event and was soon depressed and desolate. In addition, Picasso was very poor. His absolute poverty made him identify and relate to beggars, prostitutes, and other downtrodden outcasts in society. In fact, The Old Guitarist is modeled after a blind artist in Madrid.
These events and circumstances led to the creation of Picasso’s Blue Period, which lasted from 1901 to 1904. The Blue Period is identified by the flat expanses of blues, greys, and blacks, melancholy figures lost in contemplation, and a deep and significant tragedy. However, some rumors say that Picasso was so poor he could only afford a canvas and tubes of blue paint. Either way, The Old Guitarist is a painting produced during Picasso’s Blue Period.
Read more about this topic: The Old Guitarist
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or period:
“There were ghosts that returned to earth to hear his phrases,
As he sat there reading, aloud, the great blue tabulae.
They were those from the wilderness of stars that had expected more.
There were those that returned to hear him read from the poem of life,
Of the pans above the stove, the pots on the table, the tulips among them.
They were those that would have wept to step barefoot into reality....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.”
—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180)