Subject: Blue and Rose Period
From: Paul Miller (phm@midsouth.rr.com)
Date: Tue Mar 28 2000 - 20:57:27 EST
Salinger possibly uses aspects of two of Picasso's "periods" , the "Blue"
and the "Rose" in DDSBP. Here is a little about both periods.
Blue Period
In late 1901 Picasso's work took a dramatic turn. Beginning with several
paintings that commemorated the recent suicide of his friend Casagemas, the
artist's themes grew solemn and dark, and he adopted a palette devoted
almost exclusively to shades of *blue. The monochromatic use of blue was not
uncommon in symbolist painting in Spain or France, where it was associated
with representations of *melancholy or despair*. Such associations were well
suited to Picasso's subject matter, which focused on denizens of the
underclass. Along with the many indigents and misérables he portrayed in
dark corners of unnamed streets and cafés (Crouching Woman), Picasso
depicted prostitutes and their children at the women's prison of
Saint-Lazare in Paris. Rather than show the specific circumstances of their
misfortune, however, he idealized his figures. Using elongated proportions
derived from El Greco, Picasso metaphorically allows his subjects to escape
their worldly fate and occupy a utopian state of grace. Some are afflicted
with blindness, a physical condition that symbolically suggests the presence
of spiritual inner vision.
Throughout the Blue period Picasso also created intimate portraits of his
bohemian comrades and acquaintances in Paris and Barcelona, who sought to
identify themselves with society's dispossessed. Their relative poverty
lends Blue period subjects a certain *self-pitying air. Indeed, in his
masterpiece La Vie Picasso originally planned to depict himself as the
protagonist, although he ultimately substituted a portrait of Casagemas.
Historians interpret this somewhat mysterious work as an allegory of *birth,
death, and redemption*. Picasso's biographer John Richardson has further
observed the appearance of gestures borrowed from Tarot cards and other
arcane elements of mysticism. In this context the figures may refer to the
theme of *sacred and profane love*, although precise meanings remain
unclear.
In the spring of 1904 Picasso finally settled in Paris, moving into a
*tumbledown residence* in Montmartre known as the Bateau Lavoir, named for
its resemblance to a laundry barge. The Parisian cabaret Le Lapin Agile
replaced Els Quatre Gats as a gathering place for his circle of friends,
sometimes known as la bande à Picasso ("the Picasso gang"). Refining the
exaggerated, now almost skeletal proportions of his figures, Picasso
produced his most important early print, The Frugal Repast, which depicts a
destitute couple sharing a paltry meal of bread and wine. In addition to
poverty and dolor, Picasso's late Blue period work expresses a wider range
of emotion. Intimacy, affection, and tender eroticism are seen in portraits
of two mistresses, Fernande Olivier and a model now known only as Madeleine,
the subject of Woman in a Chemise, one of the artist's most delicate and
sympathetic images. Perhaps unexpectedly, Picasso produced scurrilous
*caricatures and other satiric images at this time, indulging what became a
lifelong taste for *parody.
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----Rose Period
In 1905 Picasso abandoned the palette and subject matter of the Blue period, turning to images of *fairground and circus performers, whom he depicted in a range of chalky red hues. Accordingly, this phase of his work has come to be known as the Rose period. Picasso observed these figures firsthand at the Cirque Medrano, as well as in the streets and outskirts of the city, where a migrant community of acrobats, musicians, and clowns-- *saltimbanques--entertained passing spectators. Such figures commonly occur in romantic and symbolist art and verse (from *Daumier and Seurat to Baudelaire and Rimbaud), where the saltimbanque exists in a perpetual state of *melancholy and *social alienation*. In the poems of Guillaume Apollinaire, one of several poets who were among the artist's closest friends at this time, the acrobat acquires an air of mystery and enchantment that clearly corresponds to Picasso's tone. Through paintings, watercolors, gouaches, drawings, and prints, Picasso tends to show his fairground performers at rest, often in domestic settings that are genial and warm. Yet in keeping with their relatively impoverished circumstances and the saltimbanque's traditional role as a symbol of the *neglected artist, a pervasive ennui suffuses Rose period pictures.
The paramount work in this series is the large *Family of Saltimbanques*. Several preliminary studies for this composition exist, and x-radiography shows that Picasso attempted previous versions on the large canvas itself before arriving at the final image. Family of Saltimbanques is a summation of the fairground theme. Set within a desolate landscape, the vagabond troupe embodies a condition of collective alienation, as the figures gather yet fail to interact. The acrobat at the far left, bearing the artist's features, is dressed as Harlequin, a wily character from eighteenth-century popular theater (commedia dell'arte) who would often serve as Picasso's alter ego.
Paul
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