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.

Signature: Signed in blue, upper right: Picasso

[Galerie Vollard, Paris, by 1906/7–1912, stock no. 5456; probably purchased from the artist; sold on December 11, 1912, for 3,000 francs 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 [purchased with funds given by Mr. and Mrs. Ira Haupt])

- Munich 1913. Ausstellung Pablo Picasso, Munich, Moderne Galerie (Heinrich Thannhauser), 1913, no. 10;
- Cologne 1913. Der Rheinischer Kunstsalon, Cologne, 1913, possibly no. 7;
- Buenos Aires 1934. Picasso, Buenos Aires, Galería Müller, October 1934 (lent by J. K. Thannhauser) [exh details per letter from Vivian Endicott Barnett to Margaretta Salinger in MMA files, May 16, 1975];
- Paris 1938. Paris, Galerie Thannhauser, 1938;
- Hofstra College, June 26-September 1, 1952??????
- New York, Chicago 1957. Picasso, 75th Anniversary Exhibition, New York, Museum of Modern Art, May 20-September 8, 1957, Art Institute of Chicago, October 19-December 1, 1957, exh. cat. by Alfred H[amilton] Barr, Jr., New York, 1957, p. 19;
- Philadelphia 1958. Picasso: A Loan Exhibition of his Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints and Illustrated Books, Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 8-February 23, 1958, exh. cat. by Carl Zigrosser, Philadelphia, 1958, no. 12;
- London (Arts Council of Great Britain) 1960. Picasso, London, Tate Gallery, July 6-September 18, 1960, exh. cat. by Roland Penrose, London, 1960, p. 16 no. 18, pl. 6b;
- New York 1962. Picasso, an American Tribute, New York, Knoedler Galleries, 1962, exh. cat. by John Richardson, New York, 1962, no. 13 (ill.);
- New York 1980. Picasso: A Retrospective, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, exh. cat. by William S. Rubin, ed., et al., pp. 47, 53 (ill.);
- London, Hayward Gallery, November 14, 1985-February 23, 1986?????
- Cleveland 1992. Picasso and Things, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, exh. cat. by Jean Sutherland Boggs, 1992, p. 41 (ill.);
- Washington, D. C., Boston, 1997-98. Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906, Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art, March 30-July 27, 1997, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, September 10, 1997-January 4, 1998, exh. cat. by Marilyn McCully, ed., et al., no. 94 (color ill.);
- New York 2000. Painters in Paris 1895-1950, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 8-December 31, 2000, p. 17 (color ill.);
- Kyoto, Tokyo 2002-3. Picasso and the School of Paris, Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kyoto,Japan: Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, September 14-November 24, 2002; Tokyo: The Bunkamura Museum of Art, December 7, 2002 - March 9, 2003, pl. 6, p. 38 (color ill.);
- New York, Chicago, Paris 2006-7. Ambroise Vollard: Patron of the Avant-Garde, MMA, NY, September 13, 2006 – January 7, 2007; Art Institute of Chicago, February 17– May 13, 2007; Musee D'Orsay, Paris, June 11 – September 16, 2007 (PARIS ONLY);
- Cleveland, New York 2006-7. Barcelona & Modernity: Gaudi to Dali, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, October 15, 2006-January 7, 2007; MMA, New York, March 7-June 3, 2007, fig. 3 (cat. 4:16), p.137 (color ill.).


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- Zervos 1932-78. Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, 33 vols., Paris and New York, 1932-78, vol. I, no. 168 (as The Blind Man's Meal, 1903, painted in Barcelona, in a private collection in Westphalia);
- Cahiers d'Art VII (1932), p. 91 (ill., as 1902);
- Cirici-Pellicer 1950. Alejandro Cirici-Pellicer, Picasso antes de Picasso [Barcelona, 1946], French ed., Paris, 1950, pp. 151, 154, 158ff., pl. 129;
- Lieberman 1961. William S[lattery] Lieberman, Picasso, Blue and Rose Periods [1952], New York, 1961, pl. 19 (color);
- Vallentin 1957. Antonina Vallentin, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1957, pp. 87ff.;
- Daix, Boudaille 1966. Pierre Daix, Georges Boudaille, and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, 1900-1966, Greenwich, Conn., 1966, pp. 51-61, no. IX.32;
- Palau i Fabre 1966. Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso en Cataluña, Barcelona, 1966, p. 102 no. 9 (color ill.);
- Sterling, Salinger 1967. Charles Sterling and Margaretta Salinger, Metropolitan Museum of Art, French Paintings, vol. III, XIX-XX Centuries, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1967, pp. 230ff (ill.; catalogued);
- Penrose 1981. Roland Penrose, Picasso: His Life and His Work [1958], 3rd edition, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1981, p. 90, pl. II, fig. 8;
- Palau i Fabre 1985. Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso: The Early Years 1881-1907, 1985, no. 920 (ill.);
- Richardson 1991ff. John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, vol. 1, New York, 1991, pp. 277-279 (ill.);
- Boggs 1992. Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Picasso & Things, Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992, p. 41, ill.;
- Geelhar 1993. Christian Geelhar, Picasso. Wegbereiter und Foerderer seines Aufstiegs, 1899-1939, Zurich, 1993, p. 73, fig. 63.

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