TOW #19 The Old Guitarist by Picasso

            The Old Guitarist, painted by Pablo Picasso in 1903, is a painting that encapsulates many of the key characteristics that were featured in the artist’s paintings at that time in his life. Set against a backdrop made up of shades of blue and gray, the main focus of the painting is an older-looking man sitting cross-legged and playing the guitar. The skin of the man is light gray and almost seems lifeless. He holds a simply painted acoustic guitar with gnarled hands that indicate his age. The rip in the shoulder of his blue tunic gives an impression of poverty, possibly even homelessness. Pablo Picasso was undergoing an intense period of depression at the time when he painted The Old Guitarist; this period is commonly known as his blue period. Prevalent in many of his works during this time were themes of loneliness, destitution, and despair. Scenes featuring the homeless and most desolate members of society that Picasso produced during this time, including The Old Guitarist, express his bleak sentiment on life and society in his home country of Spain at the time.

            Obvious though it may seem, the colors used in this picture convey the themes that Picasso intended more effectively than anything else. Though some of the details of the old man’s body indicate his age and destitution, the melancholy tone set by the blue color scheme really gives the viewer of the painting a sense of loneliness. Picasso uses his color scheme to set a tone that appeals to the reader’s sense of human emotion. He also draws on the collective cultural memory of his audience, knowing that many of his viewers would recognize the figure of a lone man, sitting on a sidewalk, playing guitar to earn a meager pittance. Picasso’s appeals to emotion and a collective cultural memory are very effective in impressing his intended feeling of desolate loneliness upon the viewer of this painting.