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Les périodes bleue et rose
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Les périodes bleue et rose

The Blue and Pink Periods

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Picasso - La Lecture de la lettre - MP424 - 16-537562
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Pablo Picasso, « La Lecture de la lettre », 1899-1900, 48 x 63 cm, Fusain, MP424, Musée national Picasso-Paris
What are the characteristics of these two periods? Are they foundational to Picasso's artistic production at the beginning of the 20th century?

Discovering Paris

In October 1900, Picasso and his friend Carlos Casagemas, dressed in their new suits, arrived at the Orsay train station, which had just been inaugurated for the Universal Exhibition. Picasso presented his painting "Last Moments". At barely 19 years old, he took over the studio of the painter Isidre Nonell, in the latter's absence, located on rue Gabrielle, in Montmartre. Parisian life is punctuated by visiting museums, meetings with various people, but also the nightlife, frequenting cabarets and other "places of pleasure".
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Picasso - La Lecture de la lettre - MP424 - 16-537562
Légende
Pablo Picasso, « La Lecture de la lettre », 1899-1900, 48 x 63 cm, Fusain, MP424, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Danseuse de French-cancan - MP436 - 19-501659
Légende
Pablo Picasso, « Danseuse de French-cancan », 1901, Dessin à la plume, encre, 32 x 25 cm, MP436 , Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Café-concert du Paralelo - MP2008-2 - 15-526653
Légende
Pablo Picasso,« Café-concert du Paralelo », Vers 1900, Huile sur bois, 36 x 48 cm, MP2008-2, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Études: femme dans un intérieur, têtes de femme et couple enlacé - MP429 - 04-514778
Légende
Pablo Picasso, « Études: femme dans un intérieur, têtes de femme et couple enlacé », 1900-1901, Dessin à la plume, 15 x 23 cm, MP429, Musée national Picasso-Paris

The Blue Period

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Picasso - Autoportrait - MP4 - 16-530611
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Pablo Picasso, « Autoportrait », 1901, Huile sur toile, 81 x 61 cm, MP4, Musée national Picasso-Paris

In 1901, a major drama occurred in Picasso's life. Having returned to Spain for some time, he received sad news on February 17. His friend Casagemas, who was depressed, died by suicide, shooting himself in a Parisian café following an unhappy love affair with Germaine Pichot.

Following this unfortunate episode, Picasso experienced a dark period. In addition to the poverty in which he lived, the death of his friend devastated him and he began a series of paintings tinted blue, a color associated with deep melancholy. "Blue Self-Portrait", dating from 1901 and kept at the Musée National Picasso-Paris, is a testimony to the painter's state of mind. Although he was 20 years old at the time of its creation, he represents himself as a man with drawn and hollowed out features, with a patched coat and a taciturn demeanor.

In the summer of 1901, Picasso was exhibited for the first time in a Parisian gallery, that of Ambroise Vollard. The exhibition was organized by the art dealer Pedro Mañach. It was on this occasion that he met the poet Max Jacob. Picasso was inspired by his surroundings and the places he frequented, producing a series of erotic drawings directly representing the inhabitants of brothels. The year 1902 also marks the creation of his first sculpture in clay: Seated Woman.

Still in a very precarious situation, Picasso shared a room in Paris with Max Jacob on Boulevard Voltaire. The exhibitions in April 1902 at the gallery Berthe Weill - the first in France to sell Picasso's works - introduce the blue period.

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Picasso - La Mort de Casagemas - MP3 - 16-516688
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Pablo Picasso, « La Mort de Casagemas », 1901, Huile sur bois, 27 x 35 cm, MP3, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Carnet 2 - MP1854 - 18-522004
Légende
Pablo Picasso, « Carnet 2 », 1901, Dessin au crayon noir, 20 x 12 cm, MP1854, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Femme assise - MP230 - 15-503126
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Pablo Picasso, « Femme assise », 1902, 14 x 8 x 11 cm, MP230, Musée national Picasso-Paris

St-Lazare Prison

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Picasso - Etude pour "L'Entrevue" - MP447 - 20-508120
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Pablo Picasso, « Etude pour "L'Entrevue" », Hiver 1901/02, Mine de plomb, 45 x 32 cm, MP447,Musée national Picasso-Paris
In 1901, Picasso met Dr. Louis Jullien, a specialist in venereal diseases, who worked in the hospital of the women's prison of Saint-Lazare, in Paris. The visits to observe the inmates inspired the painter. The loneliness of the patients, most of whom were prostitutes, was the source of paintings depicting them in a prison setting, tinged with the deep melancholy that was already present in Picasso's work, so characteristic of the blue period. Many of these representations sacralize the female figure, comparable to a Madonna or a Virgin and Child - the prisoners were allowed to live with their children within the prison. The example of the painting "Two Sisters (The Meeting)" kept in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is reminiscent of "The Visitation" painted by El Greco (1541-1614). The museum has some preparatory drawings by Picasso, where we can see the white headdress worn by women suffering from venereal diseases in the prison.

Emblematic Works

In May 1903, Picasso realized a composition that he had had in mind for several years by covering his previous painting entitled "Last Moments" with an emblematic representation of the blue period, dealing with the theme of the couple. Thus was born "Life", preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art, a true allegory from pregnancy to death, in which Picasso included autobiographical elements: the man takes on the features of the deceased Casagemas, testifying to the inner suffering that inhabited the artist since the loss of his friend. In 1904, "The Couple" (Merzbacher Kunststiftung) and "La Celestina" heralded an evolution in Picasso's work, with the introduction of new themes and an aesthetic change.
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Picasso - Etude pour "Le Couple" - MP481 -16-537570
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Pablo Picasso, « Etude pour "Le Couple" », 1904, Aquarelle, dessin au crayon gras, 37 x 27 cm, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Etude pour "La vie" - MP473 - 93-003582
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Pablo Picasso, « Etude pour "La vie" », 1903, Dessin à la plume, 15 x 11 cm, MP473, Musée national Picasso-Paris

Fernande Olivier (1881-1966)

Fernande Olivier entered Picasso's life at a time of transition for the painter. She describes her first visit to the artist's studio in her memoirs a few years later: "It was the end of the 'blue period'. Large unfinished canvases stood in the studio where everything breathed work: but work in such disarray…” Known as a painting model in the Montmartre district, the woman nicknamed "La Belle Fernande" lived at the Bateau-Lavoir in 1904. She was often accompanied by her friend Benedetta Canals, companion of the painter Ricardo Canals, a close friend of Picasso. Both of them posed for the artists of the neighborhood. Considered one of Picasso's first great loves, Fernande never married him. The couple enjoyed a youth made up of parties, excess, travel and meetings. The "Picasso gang" characterizes this Parisian period, which Fernande recounts in her book Picasso and his friends, recalling their Parisian entourage of the time.

1.OLIVIER Fernande, « Picasso et ses amis », 2001, éditions Pygmalion/Gérard Watelet, Paris

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Anonyme - Pablo Picasso et Fernande Olivier avec leurs chiens, Féo et Frika - FPPH145 - 89-008292
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Anonyme, « Pablo Picasso et Fernande Olivier avec leurs chiens, Féo et Frika, Montmartre, Paris », vers 1904-06, FPPH145, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Portrait de Fernande Olivier, en [1906] - FPPH147 - 98-022340
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Pablo Picasso, « Portrait de Fernande Olivier », 1906, FPPH147, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Pablo Picasso - Portrait de Fernande Olivier - MP1905 - 16-530557
Légende
Pablo Picasso, « Portrait de Fernande Olivier », 1906, Pointe sèche, 16 x 11 cm, MP1905, Musée national Picasso-Paris

The Pink Period

Finally settled in the Bateau-Lavoir, in Montmartre, Picasso met other artists and poets like André Salmon and Guillaume Apollinaire. They all frequented the café Au lapin agile, the Médrano circus and the Parisian theater troupes. Picasso attended shows by entertainers and acrobats. Little by little the subjects evolved, the figure of the actor in disguise and the melancholic acrobat became very present in his renderings and the colors gradually moved towards pink tones.

In 1905, Picasso met the Dutch journalist and writer, Tom Schilperoort, who invited him to spend the early summer in his native village, Schoorl. The trip lasted six weeks, and Picasso's output was limited to two notebooks and some gouache paintings. In addition to landscapes, he focused primarily on traditional costumes worn by curvaceous women, foreshadowing a sculptural style in Picasso's work.

In 1906, Picasso discovered Iberian sculpture at the Louvre Museum in Osuna and Cerro de Los Santos. Then, in the company of Fernande, Picasso took a trip to the small Catalan village of Gósol. This Spanish interlude is instrumental in Picasso's painting.

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Edition G.C.A - Le cabaret du Lapin Agile, rue des Saules à Montmartre - APPH16346 -18-510854
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Edition G.C.A, « Le cabaret du Lapin Agile, rue des Saules à Montmartre, Paris », Vers 1872, 9 x 14 cm, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Maquette d'affiche : Théâtre Molière Sainte-Roulette -  MP2012-3 -17-503955
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Pablo Picasso , « Maquette d'affiche : Théâtre Molière Sainte-Roulette », 1904, Aquarelle, gouache, 118 x 87 cm, MP2012-3 , Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Carnet 5 - MP1856 - 16-521298
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Pablo Picasso, « Carnet 5 », Juin-juillet 1905, Dessin à la plume, dessin au crayon de couleur, encre noire, gouache, graphite, lavis d'encre,12 x 18 cm, MP1856, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Carnet 4 - MP1855 - 16-521281
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Pablo Picasso, « Carnet 4 », 1905, Aquarelle, encre noire, 11 x 15 cm, MP1855, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Jeune garçon nu - MP6 - 15-651748
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Pablo Picasso, « Jeune garçon nu », 1906, Huile sur toile, 67 x 43 cm, MP6, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Fernande à la mantille blanche - MP510 - 16-537249
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Pablo Picasso, « Fernande à la mantille blanche », 1906, Fusain, 63 x 47 cm, MP510, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Paysage - MP489 - 94-020205
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Pablo Picasso, « Paysage », 1906, Dessin au crayon noir, gouache, 47 x 61 cm, MP489, Musée national Picasso-Paris

Towards « Les demoiselles d'Avignon »

In 1907, Picasso made a series of drawings, a large part of which are in the Picasso-Paris National Museum. Their particularity lies in the evolution of the artistic style. These drawings are preparatory sketches for "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (The Museum of Modern Art, New York). A starting point for the cubist period, the geometric language differs from the blue and pink period with a multiplicity of viewpoints and perspective.
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Picasso - Petit nu de dos aux bras levés (étude pour Les Demoiselles d'Avignon)" - MP11 - 20-508083
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Pablo Picasso, « Petit nu de dos aux bras levés (étude pour "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon") », Mai 1907, Huile sur bois ,19 x 11 cm, MP11, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Etude pour "les demoiselles d'Avignon" : femme nue écartant un rideau - MP541- 07-506105
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Pablo Picasso, « Etude pour "les demoiselles d'Avignon" : femme nue écartant un rideau », 1907, 63 x 48 cm, Fusain, MP541, Musée national Picasso-Paris
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Picasso - Femme aux mains jointes (étude pour "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon") - MP16 - 17-520029
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Pablo Picasso, « Femme aux mains jointes (étude pour "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon") », Printemps 1907, Huile sur toile, 90 x 71 cm, MP16, Musée national Picasso-Paris