Picasso ballerina blue period

In choosing austere color and sometimes doleful subject matter - prostitutes, beggars and drunks are frequent subjects - Picasso was influenced by a journey through Spain and by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas, who took his life at the LHippodrome Cafe in Paris, France by shooting himself in the right temple on February 17, Although Picasso himself later recalled, "I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas's death", art historian Helene Seckel has written: "While we might be right to retain this psychologizing justification, we ought not lose sight of the chronology of events: Picasso was not there when Casagemas committed suicide in Paris At this time Picasso was very open to artistic influences around him, and events of these years would have a major effect on his: the exhibition of Fauve works, particularly those of Henri Matisse.

Picasso responded to the new avant-grade developments of the Fauve painters in Paris by exploring new directions himself, creating his ground-breaking style. Picasso's depression didn't end with the beginning of his rose period, which succeeded the blue period and in which the color pink dominates in many of his paintings. In fact, it lasted until the end of his cubist period which followed the rose period and only in the period thereafter, which was his neo-classicist period, did Picasso's work begin the show the playfulness that would remain a prominent feature of his work for the rest of his life.

Picasso's contemporaries didn't even distinguish between a blue and a rose period but regarded the two as one single period. Starting in the latter part of he painted several posthumous portraits of Casagemas, culminating in the gloomy allegorical painting La Vie , painted in and now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The same mood pervades the well-known etching The Frugal Repast , 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 , the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the portrait of Celestina Many of the images are lone individuals, including elderly, decrepit, blind, and malnourished people as well as single moms. Others, however, are posthumous portraits of Carlos Casagemas, a beloved friend who has passed away.

These dismal pieces, influenced by Spain but produced in Paris, are today among his most important pieces, even though he struggled to sell these during the period. Picasso arrived in Paris in after a few trying years with no stable studio and little creative achievement. In , he created his Blue Period pieces, which appeared to represent his experiences of deprivation and insecurity, showing the homeless, petty criminals, the elderly and fragile, and the blind.

This is one of several tributes Picasso erected in honor of the young artist who committed himself by shooting himself in Paris. She seemed to be gleefully promiscuous in contrast to his impotence. He may have known about or perhaps seen Dr. He was also able to laud Casagemas by comparing him to Van Gogh. Another painting from the same year features a canvas covered in the color blue.

Within this picture, two situations are happening. The commonplace ceremony of burial is included in the bottom half.

Picasso ballerina blue period

Casagemas is encircled by the mourning as he is laid to rest on the earth. Their bodies are slumped and bent and some are holding their heads in their hands while others are cuddling up to one another in the traditional sorrowful body language. The skies open above to receive Casagemas. Picasso created the picture named The Soup in Barcelona in He also remembered going to the Pantheon to witness the French paintings that had been finished five years previously, such as those by artist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, a member of the symbolism movement.

Picasso drew this image, which is likely what led him to choose to paint a similar subject. On the other hand, The Soup is fascinatingly equivocal. Is the elderly woman, who is physically exhausted from her poverty, giving the young kid the soup or getting it from her? Picasso places the basic need for nutrition at the core of the charitable deed.

Only a chosen number of innumerable pieces of art produced over hundreds of years can completely fascinate, puzzle, and mentally test the viewer. Even fewer are capable of transcending individual prejudices and briefly separating everyone from their strongly held aesthetic tastes. They are independent artistic structures that speak on their own merits.

Pablo Picasso never meant for the artwork to be understood by everyone in the world. BBC News. Retrieved Sources [ edit ]. Pablo Picasso. Blue — Rose — African — Cubism — Girl from Majorca Don Quixote Toros y toreros Le Taureau — Dove Regjeringskvartalet murals. Desire Caught by the Tail c. Picasso's written works. Categories : Paintings by Pablo Picasso Works about depression.

Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles containing Spanish-language text Articles containing French-language text. Toggle the table of contents. Picasso's Blue Period. On the left, Casagemas and Gabrielle are depicted, their bodies entwined yet emotionally distant. Despite their physical proximity, a palpable chill permeates their icy skin tones, symbolizing the emotional chasm between them.

Between these two pairs, a canvas portrays an embracing couple, enveloped in a poignant embrace of pure melancholy. DailyArt Magazine needs your support. Every contribution, however big or small, is very valuable for our future. Thanks to it, we will be able to sustain and grow the Magazine. Thank you for your help! Teacher by trade; art lover by choice.

Like all manner of artists and movements but somehow always end up back in ! Among them,