Picasso Paintings and his Blue Period

Pablo Picasso was someone who was very busy with his art work he made paintings, ceramics, prints, tapestries, drawings, sculptures, etc was extremely productive. "One site reports 50,000 art works in total, including 1,885 paintings, while another site reports 13,500 paintings, and another suggests over 20,000 paintings! Keep in mind he was painting for over 75 years, but that's still a lot of paintings." Artsology

Picasso had went through a blues phase. The Blue Period of Picasso was between 1900 and 1904. When he painted he essentially used shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors. They are now some of his most popular works, but at the time he had difficulty selling them.

Picasso had settled in Paris in 1904, spent some difficult years with no studio and little artistic success. In 1903 Picasso's Blue Period was developed, which reflect his experience of relative poverty and instability, depicting beggars, street urchines, the old and frail and the blind.

It is uncertain when this period started; it could have began in Spain during the spring of 1901, or in Paris towards the end of the year. In choosing sober colors and sometimes doleful subject matter, example prostitutes. Beggars and drunks are frequent subjects. He was influenced by his journey through Spain. Also influenced by the suicide of his dear friend Carlos Casagemas. He had who took his life at the L’Hippodrome Café in Paris, France. By shooting himself in the right temple on February 17, 1901 Carlos Casagemas died.

Another influence to Picasso's blue period paintings was a woman's prison, which was St. Lazare in Paris. In this prison nun served as guards. In one of his paintings he has painted two sisters but in all the two sisters were actually a prisoner and a nun. The painting is an example of how he used to mix daily reality with Christian iconography.




Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suburbanslice/4060963178/