Pablo Picasso | The Blind Man's Meal | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Blind Man's Meal

Pablo Picasso
(Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France )

Date: 1903

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 37 1/2 x 37 1/4in. (95.3 x 94.6cm) 47 1/2 x 47 3/8 x 2 3/4 in. (120.7 x 120.3 x 7 cm) (Frame)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Ira Haupt Gift, 1950

Accession Number: 50.188

Not on view

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

This striking painting is one of Picasso's most moving pictures from his Blue Period, so named for the blue coloration that permeated his work at the time (autumn 1901-mid-1904). Frequently he depicted solitary figures set against almost empty backgrounds, the blue palette imparting a mood of melancholy and desolation to images that suggest unhappiness and dejection, poverty, despondency, and despair. Most prevalent among his subjects were the old, the destitute, the blind, the homeless, and the otherwise underprivileged outcasts of society.

The Blind Man's Meal, painted in Barcelona in the autumn of 1903, summarizes the stylistic characteristics of Picasso's Blue Period: rigorous drawing, simple hieratic compositions and forms, and of course, a blue tonality. The composition presents a forlorn figure seated at a frugal repast. In a letter, preserved in the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Picasso gives a very precise description of the composition: "I am painting a blind man at the table. He holds some bread in his left hand and gropes with his right hand for a jug of wine." An empty bowl and a white napkin complete the still life on the table. The man's slightly contorted figure, long thin El Greco-like hands, unadorned surroundings, and his blindness make his disenfranchised condition all the more poignant. The highlights on his face and neck, hands, bread, and napkin put the figure in relief against the austere background.

The painting is not merely a portrait of a blind man; it is also Picasso's commentary on human suffering in general. The meager meal of bread and wine invites references to the figure of Christ and the principal dogma of Catholic faith, whereby bread and wine represent Christ's body and blood, sacramental associations that Picasso as a Spaniard would have known. Additionally, the work elicits affinities to Picasso's own situation at the time, when, impoverished and depressed, he closely identified with the unfortunates of society.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signature: Signed in blue, upper right: Picasso
Provenance

[Galerie Vollard, Paris, by 1906/7–1912, stock no. 5456; probably purchased from the artist; sold on December 11, 1912, for Fr 3,000 and shipped on January 10, 1913, to Moderne Galerie]; [Moderne Galerie (Heinrich Thannhauser), Munich, 1912–13, stock no. 3272; sold in February 1913 to Koenig]; Hertha Koenig and her brother, Helge Siegfried Koenig, Munich (1913–50; consigned by November 16, 1949, until November 1950 to Justin K. Thannhauser, New York; sold in November 1950, through Thannhauser, for $38,500 to MMA)
Exhibition History

Munich. Moderne Galerie (Heinrich Thannhauser). "Ausstellung Pablo Picasso," February 1913, no. 10.

Buenos Aires. Galeria Müller. "Exposición Pablo Ruiz Picasso," October 1934, no. 3.

Hempstead, N. Y. Hofstra College. "Metropolitan Museum Masterpieces," June 26–September 1, 1952, no catalogue (checklist no. 29).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections, Summer Loan Exhibition," June 19–October 1, 1956, no catalogue.

Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition," May 4–September 8, 1957, unnumbered cat. (p. 19).

Art Institute of Chicago. "Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition," October 29–December 8, 1957, unnumbered cat.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso: A Loan Exhibition of His Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints and Illustrated Books," January 8–February 23, 1958, no. 12.

London. Tate Gallery. "Pablo Picasso," July 6–September 18, 1960, no. 18.

Knoedler and Co., New York. "Picasso, an American Tribute: Benefit Exhibition for the Public Education Association," April 25–May 12, 1962, no. 13.

Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective," May 22–September 16, 1980, unnumbered cat. (p. 53 and checklist p. 7).

Melbourne. National Gallery of Victoria. "Picasso: Works from the Marina Picasso Collection in Collaboration with Galerie Jan Krugier, Geneva, with Loans from Museums in Europe and the United States of America and Private Collections," July 29–September 23, 1984, unnumbered cat. (pl. 14).

Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Picasso: Works from the Marina Picasso Collection in Collaboration with Galerie Jan Krugier, Geneva, with Loans from Museums in Europe and the United States of America and Private Collections," October 10–December 2, 1984, unnumbered cat.

London. Hayward Gallery. "Homage to Barcelona: The City and Its Art, 1888–1936," November 14, 1985–February 23, 1986, no. 183.

Cleveland Museum of Art. "Picasso & Things: The Still Lifes of Picasso," February 26–May 3, 1992, unnumbered cat. (p. 41).

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso & Things: The Still Lifes of Picasso," June 7–August 23, 1992, unnumbered cat.

Grand Palais, Paris. "Picasso & Things: The Still Lifes of Picasso," September 22–December 28, 1992, unnumbered cat.

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Picasso: The Early Years, 1892–1906," March 30–July 27, 1997, no. 94.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Picasso: The Early Years, 1892–1906," September 10, 1997–January 4, 1998, no. 94.

Paris. Musée Picasso. "Picasso 1901–1909: Chefs d'oeuvre du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," October 21, 1998–January 25, 1999, unnumbered cat. (fig. 29).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895 1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 17).

Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Picasso and the School of Paris: Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," September 14–November 24, 2002, unnumbered cat. (p. 39).

Tokyo. Bunkamura Museum of Art. "Picasso and the School of Paris: Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," December 7, 2002–March 9, 2003, unnumbered cat.

Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant Garde," June 11–September 16, 2007, no. 147.

Cleveland. Cleveland Museum of Art. "Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí," October 15, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 4:16.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí," March 6–June 3, 2007, no. 4:16.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 22.
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