Blue Nude

Pablo Picasso produced this melancholic figure study in 1902 during his Blue Period. A nude woman sits hunched forward, her angular body rendered in cool blue tones against a stark background. The painting reflects the sadness and poverty Picasso witnessed among the marginalized people of Barcelona and Paris.

The Blue Period (1901-1904) began after Picasso's close friend Carlos Casagemas committed suicide. The pervading blue palette expresses themes of poverty, isolation, and despair. The elongated, almost skeletal figure in Blue Nude shows influences of El Greco's mannerist style, which Picasso had studied during his formative years in Spain.