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In October 1900, at the age of 19, Pablo Picasso moved to Paris, in the company of Carlos Casagemas. Picasso's early days in Paris are characterized by poverty, which may have contributed to the melancholy of his blue period paintings, but it's certain that the sadness of his blue period paintings alienated potential buyers of his art work and thus, in turn, contributed to his poverty. While his time in Paris is of fundamental importance to his artistic development during the blue period, Picasso spent most of his time in Barcelona.
The death of Casagemas painting testifies of Picasso's shock and horror over the suicide of his friend. In the sense of Picasso dealing with his trauma this painting belongs to the blue period, but it doesn't have the atmosphere of resignation and silent mourning that his blue paintings would have.
Pablo Picasso blue period - Evocation, the burial of Casagemas. Possibly in the tradition of marrying the divine to the profane the lower half of the Evocation - the burial of Casagemas painting shows a burial, while the upper half may represent how these two young men envisaged heaven: plenty of scarcely dressed women and a mother with children.
Pablo Picasso blue period, Life
This theme returns in one of Picasso's last blue period paintings, called Life. The Life painting shows Casagemas, again with a lover and a mother with child, but this time Picasso shows a Casagemas who is alive, the faces of the company of people still melancholic, but the left leg of Casagemas treading forward and a left finger pointing upward, showing an undefeated Casagemas. It seems that his painting marks the end of Picasso's trauma and his blue period.
The main theme of both Evocation - the burial of Casagemas and Life is that they contain Picasso's best wishes for his friend and may be related to the the reason of Casagemas' suicide. Picasso's depression didn't end with the beginning of his rose period, which succeeded the blue period and in which the color pink dominates in many of his paintings.
In fact, it lasted until the end of his cubist period (which followed the rose period) and only in the period thereafter, which was his neo-classicist period. Picasso's contemporaries didn't even distinguish between a blue and a rose period but regarded the two as one single period.


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You are absolutely amazing! Do you know that? I wanted to buy 2 books on Picasso about his themes, but chose to buy some others instead. The books were wrapped and I didn't have a chance to learn what the names of his themetic work was. I am so glad you answered my question. Thanks a million! :) A+++
by Marguerite on January 16th, 2009
You are very welcome.
by Carpediem COAT ab imo pectore on January 17th, 2009