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
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter Woman in Blue Reading a Letter Woman Reading a Letter () is a painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. Part of the collection of the City of Amsterdam as part of the Van der Hoop bequest, it has been in the Rijksmuseum since its inception, and was thus the first Vermeer they acquired. The central element of the painting is a woman in blue standing in front of a window (not depicted) reading a letter. The woman appears to be pregnant, although many have argued that the woman's rounded figure is simply a result of the fashions of the