Painting, mostly in shades of blue, of a thin, bent, older man wearing ragged clothes and sitting cross-legged playing a guitar positioned upright in his lap.

The Old Guitarist

late 1903–early 1904

Pablo Picasso Spanish, active France, 1881–1973

Spain

Pablo Picasso made The Old Guitarist while working in Barcelona. In the paintings of his Blue Period (1901-04), the artist restricted himself to a cold, monochromatic blue palette, flattened forms, and emotional, psychological themes of human misery and alienation related to the work of such artists as Edvard Munch and Paul Gauguin. The elongated, angular figure of the blind musician also relates to Picasso's interest in Spanish art and, in particular, the great 16th-century artist El Greco. The image reﬂects the twenty-two-year-old Picasso's personal struggle and sympathy for the plight of the downtrodden; he knew what it was like to be poor, having been nearly penniless during all of 1902.

Oil on panel

Modern Art

The City in Art

Essentials