Another Picasso exhibition? Yes, he was brilliant and there are new generations waiting to discover his significance—but is there really anything new to say? The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and the Art Gallery of Ontario think there is, and have co-curated a new exhibition whose ambitious purpose is revelation.  To achieve this goal, PICASSO: PAINTING THE BLUE PERIOD showcases how X-Ray imaging reveals young Picasso’s emergence as a distinctive painter in his early career in Paris and Barcelona. There is always room for new ideas in art history, and Phillips Head of Conservation Elizabeth Steele believes that since much conservation work is done behind the scenes, sharing their work with the public “is a unique chance to spotlight the science of preserving art.”

The exhibition was organized by Kenneth Brummel, associate curator of Modern Art in Ontario, and Susan Behrends Frank, curator at the Phillips. They showcase three works and use X-Ray imaging to mount a literal deep-dive into Picasso’s stylistic evolution: the objective is to burrow beneath his finished paintings and dig through various layers of paint beneath to reveal how the young artist changed his mind as he worked.

Exhibition space is devoted to in-depth examinations of “The Blue Room” (1901), “Crouching Beggarwoman” (1902, and “The Soup” (1903) — all of which illustrate how young Picasso was fashioning his own identity. He incorporated ideas and colors from artists he admired, and most of all discovered how his “inner self” could shape his own style. In addition to works from the Ontario Gallery and the Phillips, there are selections from 30 international collections. The exhibition contains more than 90 paintings, sculpture, and works on paper.  But the headline is the visual documentation that the curators describe as  the “groundbreaking technical studies” that originally began at the Phillips’ Sherman Fairchild Conservation Studio. This Studio began operating in 1987, and its responsibility has been to conserve and research significant works in the Phillips collection by such artists as van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Kandinsky, Daumier, and Braque.

There is wonderful art in this exhibition that conveys artists that inspired young Picasso, including paintings by El Greco and sculpture by Rodin. But the main focus is the technical spotlight meant to “reveal” how young Picasso evolved his style. In 1900 when he was 19 and very poor, he couldn’t afford many canvases–so of course he re-used what he had until the surface painting conveyed what he wanted.  He also used scraps of cardboard and paper. Nor could he afford to pay models, so he painted the outcast people he saw walking the streets of Montmartre and the women he visited in the Saint-Lazare women’s prison-hospital.  Many of these early works portray desperate women, often with children.

“…Picasso drew on memories of the desperate people who had crossed his path in Paris–prostitutes who wandered the streets of Montmartre, and women imprisoned in the Saint-Lazare jail. Many had been his models because he could afford them.”

The exhibition downplays cultural context, alas—but what an extraordinary creative time the late 19th-early 20th century was in Paris! Much of the entire look and feel of “modernism” emanated from its cafes, studios, and streets—Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Gaugin, Degas, Matisse, Rodin…who wasn’t there?  Picasso soaked it all in as he found his own identity.

When he arrived in Paris from Barcelona in 1900, he was 19. Bursting with life, he set about to absorb everything. Many of his Catalan friends lived in Montmartre, and he and best friend Carles Casagemas borrowed lodgings there from another Catalan artist. Montmartre was a hillside “village” where artists and travelers from Spain, Italy, Russia, and America all converged. Circus clowns, acrobats, and dancers from the Ballets-Russes lived among them. They all gathered at the top of the hill and drank until dawn in cramped cafes like the place au Tertre.  In Montmartre, Picasso came to know such artists as Matisse, Andre Derain, and Modigliani.  He became friends with Gertrude Stein. As described by Alice B. Toklas, Montmartre was “like a kaleidoscope slowly turning.”

Desperate for money, Picasso returned home to Barcelona in early 1902. Picasso biographer John Richardson says this is where the “Blue Period” began in earnest, as Picasso drew on memories of the desperate people who had crossed his path in Paris–prostitutes who wandered the streets of Montmartre, and women imprisoned in the Saint-Lazare jail. Many had been his models because he could afford them. But Richardson notes that Picasso was drawn to the desperate homeless people who wandered along the beaches in Barcelona near the harbor—a setting the biographer describes as a “blue limbo” that was out of time and place.  In 1904, after shuttling back and forth between Barcelona and Paris, Picasso established himself permanently in Paris.

The idea of “blue” in Picasso’s early career has been attributed to the melancholy he felt when his best friend, Carles Casagemas, committed suicide after being jilted by the woman he loved.  But the particular “blue” Picasso used–Prussian Blue–was significant itself.  A synthetic color, it was readily available and provided a poor young artist a color he could use on his palette to blend, mix, and create new colors he otherwise couldn’t afford.  This was a vast change from earlier “blues.”  

In the Renaissance, blue was a luxury paint derived from lapis lazuli–a mineral mined in Afghanistan and imported through Venice. Lapis was worth five times its weight in gold, so the blues derived from this mineral were strictly the province of painters with wealthy patrons.  Prussian Blue was the first synthetic pigment, and was created by a chemical accident in the early 18th century. It was affordable and amazingly “blendable,” and became very popular in the works of Watteau, Fragonard, JMW Turner, and Gainsborough.  It was the perfect addition to  an artist with little funds, since it enlarged his palette by blending well to create more colors. Prussian Blue gave Picasso the freedom  to experiment and helped him understand color itself.

The exhibition’s final gallery introduces Picasso’s “Rose Period” from 1904-1906 —a drastic shift in color and mood as the artist himself moved into a happier and more self-assured time. He had discovered his own artistic voice–a process that would never stop evolving. The exhibition’s purpose of revealing Picasso’s artistry succeeds, but the revelation goes far beyond X-Ray considerations. The essential point in understanding Picasso’s  “Blue Period”  is that it was the launch of his own artistic identity.  What this formative chapter in his career reveals most of all is Picasso’s self-revelation.                    

By Amy Henderson, Contributing Editor

PICASSO: PAINTING THE BLUE PERIOD  will be at The Phillips Collection through June 12, 2022.  A catalogue is available at www.phillipscollection.org.