The Blue Room (Picasso)

Last updated

The Blue Room
French: La chambre bleue
Picasso's Blue Room 1901.jpg
Artist Pablo Picasso
Year1901 (1901)
Medium Oil on canvas
Movement Blue Period
Dimensions50.48 cm× 61.59 cm(20 in× 24 in)
Location The Phillips Collection
Website www.phillipscollection.org/collection/blue-room

The Blue Room (French : La chambre bleue) is a 1901 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he painted during his Blue Period. It depicts a scene of a nude woman bending over in a bath tub. A hidden painting was revealed beneath the surface by x-ray images and infra-red scans, showing a portrait of a bearded man. The painting has been housed in The Phillips Collection, in Washington D.C. since 1927.

Contents

Background

The Blue Room is considered to be one of the earliest examples of a work from Picasso's Blue Period. This was an important period in his life, when he moved to Paris from Barcelona and showed his paintings at his first solo exhibition at the Vollard Gallery in 1901. Picasso's Blue Period is defined by the artist's preoccupation with images of human suffering, a subject matter that he conveyed in shades of blue. [1]

This was a period of great emotional turmoil for the young artist. Throughout these early years, beginning in 1901, when Picasso was just 19 years old, he lived in poverty in Paris as a struggling artist. He also experienced the loss of his close friend, the Spanish poet Carles Casagemas, who committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at a dinner party. Picasso felt the loss of his friend deeply and this tragic event is considered to have been a major influence on his artwork which became dominated by sombre blue and green hues. Picasso said to his friend Pierre Daix, "It was thinking about Casagemas that got me started painting in blue". During his Blue Period, Picasso favoured creating portraits of the poor, lonely and suffering, such as prostitutes, destitute people and intoxicated people from the street, and his paintings were designed to convey the hardship endured by the subject. This period of pessimism would later be replaced by a more positive era known as his Rose Period. [2]

Description

The Blue Room depicts a scene of a nude woman in the process of bathing. The painting's title reflects the predominant use of blue shades throughout the painting.

The image of the woman's bedroom is particularly notable, as it offers some insight into Picasso's own living quarters at the time. The setting for this painting was Picasso's own studio apartment, situated at 130 boulevard de Clichy. The apartment was located on the top floor and was extremely small, consisting of just two rooms. The Blue Room presents a visual idea of the interior of this apartment and the view from the window. The painting shows that the studio was also used as a living room, bedroom and bathroom. Several pictures can be seen hanging on the walls of the apartment, including a seascape, reflecting Picasso's growing number of canvases and general disorder in real life. [3]

The composition was influenced by works by Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, which is illustrated by the poster May Milton (1895) by Toulouse-Lautrec, seen hanging on the wall in the painting. [1]

Hidden painting

Since the 1950s, there had been speculation that the painting had something hidden beneath its surface, after a conservator at The Philips Collection noticed inconsistencies in the brushwork. A hidden painting was later confirmed in 1997 by x-ray images. When infra-red scans were carried out on the painting in 2008, a portrait of a bearded man wearing a bow tie was revealed beneath the surface. The man is depicted in a seated position, with his right hand touching his cheek. In 2014, art experts from The Phillips Collection, the National Gallery of Art, Cornell University, and Winterthur Museum consolidated their research and concluded that Picasso had painted both images in haste in the summer of 1901. [4] [5]

Picasso painted The Blue Room at a period in his life when he was still a struggling, impoverished artist. Although he was a prolific artist in his youth, his melancholy blue paintings of poor people did not create much interest from buyers. He could not, therefore, afford to purchase new canvases for every new idea and instead reused existing ones. [6]

Technical analysis

In 2017, a research report was published following a comprehensive technical study of the painting. The study used multiple methods, including the microanalysis of paint samples, reflectance imaging spectroscopy and synchrotron radiation x-ray fluorescence mapping to analyse the materials used and the structure of the paint layers. The investigation confirmed the existence of the hidden portrait beneath the surface layer and specifically, identified a red flower located on the white shirt of the man in the earlier portrait, which could be used to identify the subject.

A visual examination revealed that the existing painting was thinly painted over a heavier texture of underlying paint layers. Patches in areas of the painting reveal other colours that are visible beneath the surface. These pre-existing colours suggest that Picasso painted over the previous painting without applying an intermediate ground layer. The visible texture of hidden brushstrokes suggests that the original painting was finished and dry when Picasso painted over it. There was also a lack of varnish and dirt between the layers, which suggests that Picasso painted the second composition soon after the first, within the space of a few months.

Further analysis showed that Picasso employed a wide palette of vivid pigments in the composition, including vermilion, viridian, chrome yellow, and cadmium yellow. He used predominantly Prussian blue for the blue areas, mixed with zinc white to apply a variety of blue tones to the painting. [7]

Significance and legacy

Patricia Favero, associate conservator at The Phillips Collection, remarked, "This painting 'The Blue Room' is very important in (Picasso's) early work. It's considered an early Blue Period painting. To find this painting underneath - which we think was painted in the same year, just earlier in the year and it's completely different in style - it gives us some insight into Picasso's development over the course of that year." [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Braque</span> French painter and sculptor (1882–1963)

Georges Braque was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he played in the development of Cubism. Braque's work between 1908 and 1912 is closely associated with that of his colleague Pablo Picasso. Their respective Cubist works were indistinguishable for many years, yet the quiet nature of Braque was partially eclipsed by the fame and notoriety of Picasso.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pablo Picasso</span> Spanish painter and sculptor (1881–1973)

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picasso's Rose Period</span> Painting series by Pablo Picasso, 1904–07

The Rose Period comprises the works produced by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso between 1904 and 1906. It began when Picasso settled in Montmartre at the Bateau-Lavoir among bohemian poets and writers. Following his Blue Period – which depicted themes of poverty, loneliness, and despair in somber, blue tones – Picasso's Rose Period represents more pleasant themes of clowns, harlequins and carnival performers, depicted in cheerful vivid hues of red, orange, pink and earth tones.

The Blue Period comprises the works produced by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso between 1901 and 1904. During this time, Picasso painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors. These sombre works, inspired by Spain and painted in Barcelona and Paris, are now some of his most popular works, although he had difficulty selling them at the time.

<i>The Old Guitarist</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

The Old Guitarist is an oil painting by Pablo Picasso, which he created in late 1903 and early 1904. It depicts an elderly musician, a haggard man with threadbare clothing, who is hunched over his guitar while playing in the streets of Barcelona, Spain. It is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection.

<i>Femme aux Bras Croisés</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Femme aux Bras Croisés, is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he created between 1901 and 1902 during his Blue Period. The subject of the painting is unknown, but she is considered to be an inmate of the Saint-Lazare hospital-prison in Paris. The painting is listed as one of the most expensive paintings after it achieved a price of $55 million at Christie's auction on 8 November 2000.

<i>Dora Maar au Chat</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Dora Maar au Chat is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1941 and depicts Dora Maar, the artist's lover, seated on a chair with a small cat perched on her shoulders. The painting is listed as one of the most expensive paintings, after achieving a price of $95 million at Sotheby's on 3 May 2006. It is currently the sixth-highest-selling painting by Picasso.

<i>The Charnel House</i> Unfinished painting by Pablo Picasso

The Charnel House is an unfinished 1944–1945 oil and charcoal on canvas painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, which is purported to deal with the Nazi genocide of the Holocaust. The black and white 'grisaille' composition centres on a massed pile of corpses and was based primarily upon film and photographs of a slaughtered family during the Spanish Civil War. It is considered to be the second of three major anti-war Picassos, preceded by Guernica in 1937 and succeeded by Massacre in Korea in 1951. The painting is housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Bottle, Glass, Fork is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). It was painted in the spring of 1912, at the height of the development of Analytic Cubism. Bottle, Glass, Fork is one of the best representations of the point in Picasso's career when his Cubist painting reached almost full abstraction. The analytic phase of Cubism was an original art movement developed by Picasso and his contemporary Georges Braque (1882–1963) and lasted from 1908-1912. Like Bottle, Glass, Fork, the paintings of this movement are characterized by the limited use of color, and a complex, elegant composition of small, fragmented, tightly interwoven planes within an all-over composition of broader planes. While the figures in Bottle, Glass, Fork can be difficult to discern, the objects do emerge after careful study of the painting. The painting is displayed in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

<i>Family of Saltimbanques</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Family of Saltimbanques is a 1905 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. The work depicts six saltimbanques, a kind of itinerant circus performer, in a desolate landscape. It is considered the masterpiece of Picasso's Rose Period, sometimes called his circus period. The painting is housed in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carles Casagemas</span> Spanish painter (1880–1901)

Carles Antoni Cosme Damià Casagemas i Coll was a Spanish painter and poet. He is known for his friendship with Pablo Picasso, who painted several portraits of Casagemas. They traveled around Spain and eventually to Paris, where they lived together in a vacant studio.

<i>La Vie</i> (painting) Painting by Pablo Picasso

La Vie is a 1903 oil painting by Pablo Picasso. It is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Picasso's Blue Period.

<i>Girl before a Mirror</i> 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso

Girl before a Mirror(French: Jeune fille devant un miroir) is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he created in 1932. The painting is a portrait of Picasso's mistress and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, who is depicted standing in front of a mirror looking at her reflection. It is housed in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

<i>La Gommeuse</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

La Gommeuse is a 1901 oil-on-canvas painting by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. It dates from his Blue Period and is noted for its caricature of Picasso's friend Pere Mañach painted on the reverse. Gommeuse was sexually charged slang of the time for café-concert singers and their songs. It was offered for sale ex the William I. Koch collection at a Sotheby's, New York, auction on 5 November 2015. The painting realized $67.5 million at the sale, a record for a Blue Period Picasso, placing the painting among the most expensive ever sold.

Woman Ironing is a 1904 oil painting by Pablo Picasso that was completed during the artist's Blue Period (1901—1904). This evocative image, painted in neutral tones of blue and gray, depicts an emaciated woman with hollowed eyes, sunken cheeks, and bent form, as she presses down on an iron with all her will. A recurrent subject matter for Picasso during this time is the desolation of social outsiders. This painting, as the rest of his works of the Blue Period, is inspired by his life in Spain but was painted in Paris.

<i>Au Lapin Agile</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Au Lapin Agile is a 1905 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It depicts the interior of the Lapin Agile, a famous cabaret club in the Montmartre area of Paris. The composition was produced during Picasso's Rose Period and includes a self-portrait of the artist who frequented the club in his youth. The painting is listed as one of the most expensive paintings after achieving a price of $40.7 million at Sotheby's auction on 27 November 1989. It is housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

<i>Yo, Picasso</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Yo, Picasso, is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he painted in 1901. It is a self-portrait of the artist that depicts him in his youth, aged 19. The painting was created at the beginning of Picasso's Blue Period. On 9 May 1989, the painting sold at Sotheby's, achieving a price of $47.85 million, making it one of the most expensive paintings sold up to that date.

<i>Portrait of Dora Maar</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Portrait of Dora Maar is a 1937 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It depicts Dora Maar,, the painter's lover, seated on a chair. It is part of the collection of the Musée Picasso, in Paris, where it is considered to be one of Picasso's masterpieces.

<i>Portrait of Ambroise Vollard</i> (Picasso) Painting by Pablo Picasso

Portrait of Ambroise Vollard is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he painted in 1910. It is now housed in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The painting is a representation of the influential art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who played an important role in Picasso's early career as an artist. It is painted in the style of Analytical Cubism, which Picasso pioneered.

<i>Girl in a Chemise</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

Girl in a Chemise is an oil-on-canvas painting created c. 1905 by Pablo Picasso. It is a portrait of a girl, whom experts believe to be Madeleine, Picasso's girlfriend during this period. Stylistically, the painting belongs to Picasso's Rose Period, although it is predominantly blue in tone. The painting is particularly remarkable for the presence of an earlier portrait of a young boy hidden beneath the surface, which Picasso transformed into the girl by making some subtle changes. The portrait has been housed in the collection of the Tate since 1933.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Blue Room". The Phillips Collection. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  2. ↑ Gotthardt, Alexxa (13 December 2017). "The Emotional Turmoil behind Picasso's Blue Period". Artsy. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  3. ↑ Penrose, Roland (1981). Picasso: His Life and Work. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN   9780520042070.
  4. ↑ Reaney, Patricia (19 June 2014). "Who's hiding in Picasso's 'Blue Room'?". Reuters. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  5. ↑ "Hidden painting found under Picasso's The Blue Room". BBC News. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  6. ↑ Simon, Scott (21 June 2014). "Buried By Picasso, The Man Beneath 'The Blue Room' Tells A Story". NPR. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  7. ↑ Patricia A.; Mass, Jennifer; Delaney, John K.; Woll, Arthur R.; Hull, Alyssa M.; Dooley, Kathryn A.; Finnefrock, Adam C. (22 March 2017). "Reflectance imaging spectroscopy and synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence mapping used in a technical study of The Blue Room by Pablo Picasso". Heritage Science. 5. doi: 10.1186/s40494-017-0126-5 . S2CID   29996170.
  8. ↑ Jones, Athena (18 June 2014). "Picasso's 'Blue Room' has a hidden occupant just beneath the surface". CNN. Retrieved 29 December 2020.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.