The Old Guitarist by Picasso

The Old Guitarist is an oil painting created around 1903 when Picasso was in his 20s.  It shows an old, blind, haggard man with threadbare clothing weakly hunched over his guitar, playing in the streets of Barcelona, Spain.  Picasso had rejected a traditional art education and was searching for his place in the world.  A year after he and a dear friend moved to Paris, that friend committed suicide from a failed relationship.  Living in poverty and depressed by his friend’s death, Picasso found himself relating to the downtrodden outcasts of society.  He entered his Blue Period, which lasted several years.  It is marked by flat expanses of blues, greys, and blacks with sad figures lost in contemplation.

The overall muted blue palette creates a general tone of melancholy, tragedy and sorrow. The guitarist shows no sign of life and appears to be close to death, implying little comfort in the world and accentuating the misery of his situation. Details are eliminated and scale is manipulated to create elongated and elegant proportions while intensifying the silent thoughts of the player. The large, brown guitar stands out against the blue background, becoming the focus of the painting.  It represents the guitarist’s only hope, as he depends on his income from music for survival. Some art historians believe the painting expresses the solitary life of an artist and common struggles that come with such a career. Music, or art, can be a burden and an alienating force isolating artists from the rest of the world. And yet, artists depend on society for survival.