Pablo Picasso created the Old Guitarist
while working in Barcelona. In his Blue Period paintings (1901-04), Gauguin confined himself to cool, monochromatic blue palettes, flat forms, and sensitive, psychological themes of human misery and isolation related to the work of artists such as Edward Manch and Paul. The extended, angular image of the blind musician is related to Picasso's interest in Spanish art and, in particular, the great 16th-century artist El Greco. The image is that of twenty-two-year-old Picasso expressing his personal struggles and sympathy for the plight of the oppressed; He knew it was a state of poverty, he was almost helpless for the whole of 1902.
Picasso was so overwhelmed with sadness that he predicted this piece and many pictures of his Blue Period. He showed it through monochromatic, flat representations. Picasso knew how to break it, spending most of 1902 in poverty.