The Blue Room (French: La chambre bleue) is a 1901 painting by Pablo Picasso painted during his Blue Period. It was found to have a different painting hidden under it using X-ray technology in 2014 by a group of art historians and scientists from the Phillips Collection in Washington.^[1]

Pablo Picasso is a painter that has an extremely lengthy list of well-known works. The large variety of styles he practiced and the great quantity of his work were major reasons for his fame - as well as the revolutionary approach of his mature style. Picasso began creating art at a very young age, following in the footsteps of his father, who also was an artist. ^[2] However, Picasso had such profound ability that he was admitted into the Academy in Barcelona in just one day, on his first try, even though most artists allowed for about one month to prepare and hope to get accepted. ^[3] One of Picasso’s most well-known “periods” or phases in his artistic growth is his Blue Period. This work was flooded with emotion as well as hues and shades of blue. This lasted from around 1901-1904 and marks a time period in Picasso’s life which was full of “poverty, despondency, and despair.” Many factors influenced Picasso to paint in such a raw and unique way. Living in Barcelona at this time, it would not have been an easy life for a young artist, and Picasso often found himself homeless and hungry. He also was depressive due to the suicide of his best friend. However, Picasso still managed to produce some of his most esteemed works, both technically and thematically skillful, with clear influences from earlier famous artists, such as El Greco.^[4] Both Picasso and his subjects were considered rejects, “outcasts, beggars and invalided prostitutes” who didn’t fit in with the usual crowd. ^[5]

The Blue Room,1901, we can see Picasso’s blue period being fully developed. His cool hues and strong use of natural light draws the viewer in to see this young idealized woman bathing in a tub in what we can assume is her bedroom. Although the painting could be described as patchy or mildly unclear, the subject and scene are still identifiable. The woman's figure and small studio background are stereotypical of Picasso’s blue period, as seen in other works such as The Blind Man’s Meal (1903). ^[6]

Although this piece can be considered typical of Picasso’s early blue period works, something interesting has come up in the last few years concerning this piece. Using x-ray cameras, scientists from the Phillip’s Collection in Washington discovered another painting just underneath the surface: a portrait of an old man resting his head in his hands. ^[7]

This discovery leads to the more important question, not who is this but why would Picasso do this? Historians collectively have collected biographical information regarding Picasso and his life during his Blue Period and concluded that he most likely did this because of his prolificacy in painting but lack of extra canvases. His economic state would not have allowed him to purchase the many materials needed in order to be a full-time artist. His “melancholy blue portraits” did not result in many eager buyers or people willing to pay for the portraits he created of random people off the street. Because of this, Picasso painted over several of his works until one would sell, making him some money to purchase more materials. ^[8]

McQuillan, Melissa. “Picasso, Pablo.” Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online. Accessed March 23, 2015

Metropolitan Museum of Art Online. “Pablo Picasso: The Blind Man’s Meal,” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Accessed March 23, 2015.

Schneider, Daniel E. “The Painting of Pablo Picasso: A Psychoanalytic Study.” College Art Journal 7, no. 2(Winter, 1947): 82.

Simon, Scott. “Buried by Picasso, The Man Beneath ‘The Blue Room’ Tells a Story.” under “Simon Says,” on NPR.org (June 21, 2014). accessed March 23, 2015.

Category:Paintings by Pablo Picasso Category:1901 paintings

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