A Place Called Space

Saturday, 21 March 2026

Pablo Picasso in Barcelona - 2

Pablo Picasso in the Picasso Museum, Barcelona - 2

This is the second post of the Picasso Museum, you can see the first one here

The Blue Period:

In the autumn 1901, while staying in Paris for the second time, Picasso fell into a period of deep introspection triggered by the suicide of his friend Carles Casagemas, which formally marked the beginning of his so-called Blue Period. Tinged with an intense, omnipresent blue in consonance with the artist's state of mind, most of the works from that time, have marginalised individuals as their protagonists, sometimes doubled into themselves, sometimes with signs of cold, hunger, desperation or illness marked on their bodies, through which Picasso seems to want to draw up a symbolic record of human misery in all its forms.

Barcelona Rooftops, 1902, (oil on canvas)

Sebastian Junyent i Sans, 1903, (oil on canvas)

Female Nude, 1903, (oil on canvas)

The Dead Woman, 1903, (oil on canvas)

Woman with a Bonnet, 1901, (oil on canvas)

Jaume Sabartes with Pince-Nez, 1901, (oil on canvas)

Interlude in Pink:

The works Picasso produced in 1905 show that the artist had entered a new period, in which varied, intense and warm pink tones had gained ground.

Madame Canals, 1905, (oil and charcoal on canvas)

Head of a Young Woman, 1906, (oil on canvas)

Woman and Child by the Sea, 1902, (oil on panel)

Forms of Desire:

Many of these images are openly pornographic and Picasso drew them on the calling cards of the business run by his friends Carles and Sebastia Junver Vidal, undoubtedly as youthful pranks.

Reclining Nude, with Frontal Gaze, 1902-03, (pen and ink and wash on paper)

Carles Casagemas Naked, 1903, (pen and ink and blue pencil on an advertising postcard)

On the Road to Cubism:

Gored Horse, 1917, (graphite pencil on canvas with ochre primer)

Blanquita Suarez, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Woman in an Armchair, 1917, (oil onn canvas)

Man with Fruit Bowl, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Seated Man, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Still Life with Glass and Packet of Tobacco, 1924, (oil on canvas)

Jaume Sabartes with Ruff and Bonnet, 1939, (oil on canvas)

Vase, 1943, (ink and wash on paper)

Owl with Chair on Ochre Background, 1947, (lithograph)

Black Pitcher and Skull, 1946, (lithograph)

Painter at Work, 1965, (oil an Ripolin on canvas)

Pigeons:

From 9 to 16 September 1957, Picasso took a break from analysing and interpreting Las Meninas (post to follow) and focused instead on the dovecote on the balcony in his studio. He always considered this group of works as part of Las Meninas series.

The pigeons, 1957, (oil on canvas)

Thursday, 19 March 2026

Pablo Picasso in Barcelona - 1

Pablo Picasso in the Picasso Museum, Barcelona - 1.

I really enjoyed the visit to the Picasso Museum, and saw some of his work that I had not seen before. The early works, which are the subject of this post are quite interesting to see. The second post is dedicated to his middle and later periods, but so much of the works of that period, his famous works, are to be found all over the world, so that this part of the exhibition was slightly disappointing. The last post is dedicated to the works Picasso made trying to come to terms with, to understand, Las Meninas by Velasquez, and this section, I found really fascinating.

But, the early works first - it was interesting seeing these, knowing how he developed.

Picasso showed a clear love of drawing from a very young age, encouraged by his father who taught art at the Provincial School of Fine Arts Stan Telmo in Malaga. In 1891 the family moved to A Coruna and Picasso enrolled at the School of Fine Arts. In 1895 the family moved to Barcelona and Picasso continued with his training.

An Evening at Home, 1896, (oil on wood)

Barcelona Rooftops, 1896, (oil on wood)

The Artist's Father, 1896, (wash and watercolour on paper)

Jose Ruiz Blasco, Pigeon Loft, 1891-95, (oil on canvas)

This painting is the work of Picasso's father, who was a painter and drawing teacher.

Trained in the 19th century academic tradition, Ruiz Blasco specialised in painting pigeons which brought him a certain clientele but not the longed-for official recognition. It is not surprising that this iconography, cultivated almost obsessively by his father, remained engraved in the memory and retina of Picasso, who depicted this bird at different times in his career. (There is a whole section of pigeon paintings in the museum and I have shown some of them in the second post).

Man in a Beret, 1895, (oil on canvas)

Academic Study, 1896, (oil on canvas)

Apologies for the reflections, I did my best, but I thought this study should be included.

Academic Study, 1896, (oil on canvas)

Partial Copy of Study, (oil on wood)

Road Between Trees, 1897-98, (oil on canvas)

Science and Charity, 1897, (oil on canvas)

The Quatre Gats paintings:

In early 1899, Picasso became a full member of the the advanced literary and artistic circles that we today call Modernists. Their meeting place was the Quatre Gats tavern which is still going. This was yet another place we wanted to visit and have a meal, but did not manage to.

Picasso had his first solo show there, held in February 1900 and designed its menu.

Study for the Menu for Quatre Gats, 1890-1900

* * *

Man, after El Greco, 1899, (oil on canvas)

Grecoesque Figure, 1899, (crayon on paper)

Painter of Modern Life:

In 1900 Picasso made his first trip to Paris, where he had his first direct contact with the currents of modern painting from Impressionism onwards. Observation of the reality around him, capturing nightime Paris, its characters and its atmosphere, is the subject of the paintings from this first visit to the city.

A few months later he returned to Paris to participate in his first exhibition in the French capital. He experimented with a style close to Neo-Impressionism and Post-Immpressionism, as indicated by the use of thick short and dynamic brushstrokes occasionally silhoueted in black.