Decrypting Picasso’s Blue Period: Understanding the Underlying Subtext Behind Picasso’s Art and His Mental Health

Pablo Ruiz Picasso is regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and brilliant artists. He is most notable for pioneering the cubist movement, designing the famous ‘constructed sculpture’, and producing other noteworthy styles of art. Although born in Spain, Picassospent the majority of his life in France as a professional painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatrical designer.

Deciphering Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period can be useful if you are interested in the subject of arts and psychology. Individuals who are eager to learn more about the complexities of mental eudaimonia must study the maestro’s works from the period. Let us now understand its underlying subtext and the allegory between Picasso’s works and his mental health.

Origin of the Blue Period: The Tragedy of Picasso

When we talk about some of the most iconic works of Picasso, most of us would generally think of the proto-Cubist ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) or the anti-war painting, ‘Guernica’ (1937). But one painting that almost everyone overlooks is Picasso’s self-portrait from 1901 when he was only 20 years old. But why is this painting so significant?

(Self Portrait of Picasso from the Blue Period)

This self-portrait (refer to the image given above), with its startlingly dominating blue tone, would be just the beginning of a succession of artworks that Picasso would make between the period of 1901 to 1904, consequently designating the period its name Blue Period. The self-portrait strikes as somewhat bleak, flat, and depressing. The same features will be shared by Picasso’s other works during the period.

The genesis of the Blue Period can be traced way back to the tragic death of Picasso’s friend Carles Casagemas. Picasso, just 19 at the time, visited Paris with his friend Carles Casagemas to be enchanted and overwhelmed by a whole new world of extravagance, depravity, and debauchery.

Casagemas would fall in love with Germaine Gargallo there. It was an unrequited love affair, in which he would repeatedly put up his offers only to be rejected by his love. This rejection pushed Casagemas to insanity and depravity, leading to a murder attempt on both the lady and himself. Although Germaine (his lady love) survived the attack, Casagemas succumbed to his injuries.

The death of his close friend pushed Picasso into a deep abyss of depression and despair, triggering him to create the series of paintings, known as the Blue Period.

Initial Works of Picasso During the Blue Period

(The Death of Casagemas)

During the Blue period, Picasso first painted the portrait of his dead friend, ‘The Death of Casagemas (1901)’. In the painting, you can see only the head of a dead Casagemas marked by a fatal wound and a lit candle. Picasso later went on to create the artwork “Casagemas in a Coffin (1901)”. This artwork is similar to the previous one, with the main variation being the absence of a lighted candle in the painting, implying his friend’s (Casagemas) burial. ‘Casagemas in a Coffin’ is much darker in its tonality and texture than its predecessor. The blue hue has a more dominant and prevalent presence in this piece of work.

Significance of Blue in Picasso’s Art

Picasso used to interpret Blue as a colour of melancholy and depression. During the period, his use of colour as a medium of catharsis would last for three years. In this period, Picasso would go on to create artworks with similar symbolism and themes to depict a broad array of subjects, many of which were related to despair, loneliness, melancholy, poverty, old age, and death. Aside from the usage of the colour blue, women, specifically his mother, were prominent subjects in his paintings.

Visual Allegory in Picasso’s Works: Parallel Between Picasso’s Art and His Real Life

Picasso’s most renowned painting from the Blue Period is The ‘Old Guitarist (1903)’. Picasso created this painting during a time when he barely had enough money to sustain himself. He was quite destitute at the time, unable to purchase even food or canvases. As a result, he began to paint on top of his prior pieces. A closer look at the art piece will help you identify the parallels between the subject and himself.

A blind elderly man, most likely a beggar, wears tattered clothes and plays the guitar in the painting. The visual imagery used in the artwork is contrasting. Unlike the remainder of the art piece, the principal element in the painting, notably the guitar, is not painted blue. In the ‘Old Guitarist,’ Picasso merged numerous of the themes employed in earlier Blue Period artworks, namely poverty, depression, loneliness, and despair, providing the spectator with a hint about his deteriorating mental health during the conceptualization and creation of the art piece.

(The Old Guitarist)

The artwork, an allusion to the artist’s personal life, illustrates the artist’s predicament at the time. Picasso, who was left penniless, can be represented in the picture as a beggar. Many art historians throughout the world have interpreted the similarities between the old man and Picasso due to their loneliness. Both the Old Man and Picasso were artists who pushed themselves to the brink of isolation to make art in the hopes of receiving some form of appreciation from the public.

Now, coming to the painting that most truly represents Picasso’s Blue Period, i.e. La Vie (1903), or life. The art piece can be interpreted into two segments. There is a pair of lovers; the young man and the woman. The Young man, initially conceptualized as the artist’s self-portrait, was later changed into that of his friend, Casagemas (after his suicide). The woman is depicted as Casagemas’ lover, Germaine. In the Painting, both lovers are represented as naked beings, in each other’s arms. Picasso created this painting for his friend who just wished to be with the love of his life, Germaine. The artist poetically fulfilled his friend’s dream in the artwork.

(La Vie- 1903)

A closer glance at the artwork reveals a specific hand gesture done by Casagemas, symbolizing the phrase, ‘Noli Me Tangere’, which Jesus said to Mary Magdalene after being resurrected. The gesture simply means “Do Not Touch Me,” which might be translated in the picture as Casamegas urging his family and Picasso himself to stop mourning his death, move on, and let go of the pain. The painting’s second pair depicts an elderly mother and her child.

The painting’s second section depicts the concept of parenting. In the background is a lonely figure curled up, representing loneliness and grief. The dichotomy of the figures in the painting represents the difference between grieving with and without emotional support. To summarise, La Vie is remarkable for perfectly encapsulating Picasso’s Blue Period, with its main themes being women, motherhood, loneliness, sorrow, and death.

This final work would be cathartic for the artist, allowing him to finally be at peace with his past and go on with his life, both, personally and professionally.