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Breakfast of the blind
Pablo Picasso • Painting, 1903, 95.3×94.6 cm
Description of the artwork «Breakfast of the blind»
Picture "Breakfast of the blind" - One of the most important paintings of the "blue period" by Picasso - is now stored in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is a wonderful translation into the modern language of the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist - the ritual of consecrating and tasting the bread and wine as the flesh and blood of Christ.
Picasso spoke about the painting in a letter to his friend, the French poet Max Jacob: “I am writing a blind man at the table. In his left hand he holds a piece of bread, and with his right hand he touches a jug of wine. Nearby, the dog is looking at him. " Technical analysis showed that initially the dog was at the bottom left, next to the plate, but then the artist removed it from the composition.
Picasso's “Blue Period” falls on 1900-1904, when he painted essentially monochrome paintings in blue and blue-green hues, occasionally diluting them with other colors. These gloomy works are now among the most popular among the Spaniard, although at one time he sold them with difficulty. His early years in Paris were difficult, and these paintings depicting beggars, cripples, street children and the blind seemed to reflect the painter’s own poverty and uncertainty about tomorrow.
It is not clear what exactly became the starting point for this period. Perhaps Picasso was affected by a trip to Spain and the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas, who shot himself in a Paris cafe on February 17, 1901. The artist himself claimed that he began to write in blue when he learned about the death of a colleague. But art critic Helena Secel notes that he was not in Paris during the suicide. This dramatic event was manifested in the works of Picasso only in the autumn of that year, when he made several portraits of the deceased.
The “blue period” was followed by “pink”, when Picasso's paintings were mostly dominated by this warm color, but the artist’s depression did not stop. It actually continued until the “Cubist period” (which followed the “pink”), and only in the subsequent period of neoclassicism did his work begin to demonstrate playfulness, which remained an outstanding feature of his work until the end of his life. Contemporaries of Picasso did not even distinguish between the “blue” and “pink” periods, considering them one.
The mood with which the composition "Breakfast of the Blind" is permeated, makes her related to a gloomy allegorical picture"A life" (1903, Cleveland Museum of Fine Arts), as well as engraving“A meager meal” (1904), which depicts a blind man and a sighted woman, exhausted, sitting at an almost empty table. Blindness is a constant theme in the works of Picasso of this period, for example, a portrait"Celestine" (1903, Picasso Museum in Paris) or"Old Jew with a boy" (1903, State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin). In addition, he also often portrayed naked women and mothers with children.
A significant influence on Picasso’s paintings of the “blue period” had his visit to the Saint-Lazare Women's Prison in Paris, where the nuns also served as security guards. Picture"Two sisters" (1902, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) is an example of how an artist combined everyday reality with Christian iconography. The pose and gestures of women resemble how artists depict the Visitation of Mary, the blue color symbolizes the Virgin. This scene is related to her meeting with Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.
The constant theme of Picasso’s “blue period”, which turned into “pink,” was the hopelessness of social outsiders - prisoners, beggars, circus artists, the poor or other desperate. This topic corresponded not only to his mood, but also to the spirit of the time, the artistic and intellectual vanguard of the early 20th century.
Author: Vlad Maslov
Picasso spoke about the painting in a letter to his friend, the French poet Max Jacob: “I am writing a blind man at the table. In his left hand he holds a piece of bread, and with his right hand he touches a jug of wine. Nearby, the dog is looking at him. " Technical analysis showed that initially the dog was at the bottom left, next to the plate, but then the artist removed it from the composition.
Picasso's “Blue Period” falls on 1900-1904, when he painted essentially monochrome paintings in blue and blue-green hues, occasionally diluting them with other colors. These gloomy works are now among the most popular among the Spaniard, although at one time he sold them with difficulty. His early years in Paris were difficult, and these paintings depicting beggars, cripples, street children and the blind seemed to reflect the painter’s own poverty and uncertainty about tomorrow.
It is not clear what exactly became the starting point for this period. Perhaps Picasso was affected by a trip to Spain and the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas, who shot himself in a Paris cafe on February 17, 1901. The artist himself claimed that he began to write in blue when he learned about the death of a colleague. But art critic Helena Secel notes that he was not in Paris during the suicide. This dramatic event was manifested in the works of Picasso only in the autumn of that year, when he made several portraits of the deceased.
The “blue period” was followed by “pink”, when Picasso's paintings were mostly dominated by this warm color, but the artist’s depression did not stop. It actually continued until the “Cubist period” (which followed the “pink”), and only in the subsequent period of neoclassicism did his work begin to demonstrate playfulness, which remained an outstanding feature of his work until the end of his life. Contemporaries of Picasso did not even distinguish between the “blue” and “pink” periods, considering them one.
The mood with which the composition "Breakfast of the Blind" is permeated, makes her related to a gloomy allegorical picture"A life" (1903, Cleveland Museum of Fine Arts), as well as engraving“A meager meal” (1904), which depicts a blind man and a sighted woman, exhausted, sitting at an almost empty table. Blindness is a constant theme in the works of Picasso of this period, for example, a portrait"Celestine" (1903, Picasso Museum in Paris) or"Old Jew with a boy" (1903, State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin). In addition, he also often portrayed naked women and mothers with children.
A significant influence on Picasso’s paintings of the “blue period” had his visit to the Saint-Lazare Women's Prison in Paris, where the nuns also served as security guards. Picture"Two sisters" (1902, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) is an example of how an artist combined everyday reality with Christian iconography. The pose and gestures of women resemble how artists depict the Visitation of Mary, the blue color symbolizes the Virgin. This scene is related to her meeting with Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.
The constant theme of Picasso’s “blue period”, which turned into “pink,” was the hopelessness of social outsiders - prisoners, beggars, circus artists, the poor or other desperate. This topic corresponded not only to his mood, but also to the spirit of the time, the artistic and intellectual vanguard of the early 20th century.
Author: Vlad Maslov
