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  Barcelona & Modernity > About the Exhibition > Exhibition Highlights > Pablo Picasso
Blind Man's Meal, 1903
 
 
Image of Pablo Picasso<br><I>Blind Man's Meal</I>, 1903 <br>Oil on canvas <br>95.3 x 94.6 cm <br>The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Ira Haupt Gift, <br>1950 (50.1888) <br>© 2006 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Pablo Picasso
Blind Man's Meal, 1903
Oil on canvas
95.3 x 94.6 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Ira Haupt Gift,
1950 (50.1888)
© 2006 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Pablo Picasso
Blind Man's Meal, 1903

In 1901, depressed over the suicide of a close friend, Picasso launched into the austere, melancholic paintings of his Blue Period (1901-1904).

Only twenty-two years old and desperately poor, he restricted his palette to predominately cold colors suggestive of night, mystery, dreams, and death. His growing obsession with themes of human misery and social alienation reached its climax with La Vie (Life) and The Blind Man's Meal.

This painting of a blind, emaciated man enjoying a simple meal brings to mind Picasso's remark that artists should have their eyes put out to make them see better, suggesting that rather than focusing on the outer, material world, artists should explore the psychological reality of thoughts and feeling.

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La Vie, 1903