Picasso's Blue Period was done in hot, bright hues. The painting considered the first of his Blue Period, "Casagemas in His Coffin", was completed later in 1901 when Picasso was sinking into a major depression. Picasso, normally an outgoing socializer, withdrew from his friends. Picasso's bout of depression was to last several years. Picasso's career had been promising before 1901 and early in that year he was making "a splash" in Paris. However, as he moved towards subject matter such as society's poor and outcast, and accented this with a cool, anguished mood with blue hues, the critics and the public turned away
Huang Quan (painter) Huang Quan (painter) Huang Quan (903–968), courtesy name Yaoshu, was a Chinese painter during the Five Dynasties period and the Song dynasty who worked in the imperial painting academies of the Former Shu, Later Shu and Song dynasties. Along with Xu Xi, Huang is considered a founding master of the bird-and-flower painting. Huang Quan was highly prolific: the 1120 catalog "Xuanhe Huapu" alone critiques 349 of his works. Unfortunately few are extant. Huang Quan was born in 903, when the Tang empire had irretrievably collapsed into warlordism and civil strife. Around this time, many painters took refuge in Chengdu, Huang