Pablo Picasso created the Old Guitarist while working in Barcelona. The painting relates 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.