Why Pablo Picasso Painted in Blue
From 1901 to 1904, a young Picasso struggled with depression
“If he was contented, we all were…for it is his fortune, or misfortune, to be able, quite unconsciously, to raise or to depress the spirits of those around him since it is impossible for him, even if he were to try, to dissimulate [or conceal] his state of mind.” –Jaime Sabartes, a close friend, in Picasso: An Intimate Portrait (pg. 92)
On October 25 1881, Pablo Picasso entered the world without breath. For a moment, his family looked on at the stillborn child in disbelief. From joy to heartbreak in a matter of seconds. When the doctor turned away, everyone but baby Pablo’s uncle seemed to give up hope. With a lit cigar in his hand, Pablo’s uncle blew a gray cloud of smoke across Pablo’s nose. Within seconds, Pablo awoke with a cry. His family rejoiced. A cigar had brought him to life, one full of its own dark clouds. One could even go further and say that it was only pollution that aroused his will to live.
Although his first word was ‘piz’ for pencil (‘lapiz’ in Spanish), young Pablo struggled all through school. Reading or completing math equations did not suit him. What he loved more than anything early on was bullfighting, and his first oil painting at the age of eight was of a mounted picador in a bull ring.
