Musée national Picasso-Paris
© Sucesión Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023.
Pablo Picasso's self-portrait, created in 1901 during his stay in Paris, is a representative work of his well-known blue period. During this period, the artist explored emotional and profound themes, marked by sadness and melancholy.
This melancholy seems to have been induced by the death of his friend Carlos Casagemas, in early 1901, an event that plunged the artist into a deep sadness. Picasso met him at the age of 19 at the Els Quatre Gats cabaret in Barcelona in 1900. Their friendship was instantaneous and they coincided in their desire to settle together in Paris, the capital of the artistic avant-garde.
Picasso's first winter in Paris in 1901 was therefore a difficult time. In this self-portrait, Picasso depicts himself in a moment of introspection and anguish. Despite being only twenty years old at the time, his face shows signs of fatigue and premature aging. The choice of a dark coat and high collar reinforces the sense of isolation and protection from the outside world.
The color blue, characteristic of this stage of the artist, predominates in this work. Picasso used this tone in monochromatic works to evoke a sense of despondency and solitude. The use of large blocks of color and the sobriety of the composition on abstract backgrounds recall his study of the great Spanish Baroque masters, the portraits of Diego Velázquez or the dramatism of Luis de Morales. But we can also perceive elements of the novelties he was discovering in Paris, the brushstrokes of Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin or Van Gogh, also through the treatment of the portrait genre. The past and the present as sources for his work were a constant in the Malaga-born artist's oeuvre.
Sources:
Musée national-Picasso París: https://www.museepicassoparis.fr/fr/autoportrait
Musée national-Picasso París: https://www.museepicassoparis.fr/fr/les-periodes-bleue-et-rose
Blog Museu Picasso Barcelona: https://www.blogmuseupicassobcn.org/2021/02/epoca-blava-viatge-a-les-profunditats-de-la-essencia-humana/?lang=es