Pablo Picasso - L'ascete, 1903

Oil on canvas. Barnes Foundation, Lincoln University, Merion, PA, USA.

Picasso's Blue Period

Examples from the period depict gaunt Madonnas, saints, and an assortment of beggars of El Greco, including Woman and Child by the Sea (1902), Blue nu (1902), The Tragedy (1903) and The Old Guitar Player (1903). These and the other pieces typical of this early work by Picasso are rich with symbolic colour, exaggerated form, and abstracted spaces.

During this period the great artist began to sign his works "Picasso" instead of "Pablo Ruiz y Picasso."