Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) II

Portrait of the Artist's Father

1896

Following in the wake of my last Picasso post (only his Rose Period), I've decided to continue onto his Blue Period. The period began, according to Picasso, with the death of his friend in 1901; "I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas's death." But I think that was a retroactive romanticization. Picasso's periods bled into each other as did his paints. The two works at the top and bottom of this post illustrate a pre-1901 proclivity towards blueness. And several of the paintings here presage his Rose Period. For me, there's something so inhuman about the lot of them, but especially his self-portrait.