PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)

Arising out of his "Blue Period," Picasso drew the present work in 1904, just a few years after his close friend, Carlos Casagemas, committed suicide. Picasso was very much consumed with sadness over his loss. His works reflected this tragedy, as his focus was shifted to human suffering, especially responsive to the less fortunate and those most consumed with the harsh realities of modern life. Beggars, prostitutes, the poor--models of isolation and destitution with haunting faces--became prolific subjects in his works. These subjects were embodiments drawn from his actual surroundings; however, they were not always specific people but Picasso's own depiction and creations. "Picasso chose to paint misfortunes: 'beggars, sick people, the cripple, the hungry and prostitutes...in the same style'" (P. Daix and G. Boudaille, Picasso, The Blue and Rose Periods, A Catalogue Raisonné 1900-1906, Neuchâtel, 1966, p. 51).

In the present work Picasso depicts an anonymous beggar, supporting his left leg with a crutch and carrying a basket over his right shoulder. He is strikingly tall and thin, composed largely of elongated vertical lies which contrast with the horizontal strokes which suggest the shoreline, horizon and cloudy sky of the background. There is an asymmetrically to the arrangement of his head and limbs, particularly the twisted left leg, that highlights his discomfort and suggests that he may be turning to avoid the viewer. The subject’s face and haunted expression are particularly finely executed. We are challenged to confront this vision of suffering by the subject’s fixed, mournful gaze, which stares out directly towards the viewer.

The same emaciated, unkempt figure is recognisable in Le fou, another drawing from 1904 in which the subject contorts his hands and face to express his inner turmoil. There is also a coloured version of the present drawing, also executed around this time, which is now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Both drawings may have been preparatory studies for ‘the biggest and most eye-catching painting that Picasso executed in the first few months at the Bateau Lavoir, Beggar with a Basket of Flowers’. The painting is now lost; John Richardson theorised that it had ‘disappeared most likely under a rose period Harlequinade’ (J. Richardson, Op. Cit., p.299). Based on X-ray analysis, It is now believed to be one of a number of unfinished paintings, all painted on the same canvas, that were eventually covered by La coiffure, 1906 (see Exh. cat., Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, no. 30, technical note). Fernande Olivier was greatly struck by the work on her first visit to Picasso’s studio, recalling:

‘… a cripple leaning on his crutch and carrying a basket of flowers on his back. The man, the background, everything in the picture was blue, except the flowers, which were painted in fresh, brilliant colours. The man was haggard, gaunt and miserable, and his expression told of his hopeless resignation. The effect was strange, tender and infinitely sad, suggesting total hopelessness, an agonised appeal to the compassion of mankind’ (F. Olivier, Picasso and His Friends, Trans. Jane Miller, New York, 1965, p.28).