Picasso's Blue Period Picasso's Blue Period The Blue Period () is a term used to define the works produced by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso between 1901 and 1904 when he painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors. These somber works, inspired by Spain and painted in Barcelona and Paris, are now some of his most popular works, although he had difficulty selling them at the time. This period's starting point is uncertain; it may have begun in Spain in the spring of 1901 or in Paris in the second half of the year. In
Blue blue with a hint of green, which was ideal for painting skies. It was a favourite background colour of the German painter Albrecht Dürer. Another blue often used in the Middle Ages was called tournesol or folium. It was made from the plant Crozophora tinctoria, which grew in the south of France. It made a fine transparent blue valued in medieval manuscripts. Another common blue pigment was smalt, which was made by grinding blue cobalt glass into a fine powder. It made a deep violet blue similar to ultramarine, and was vivid in frescoes, but it lost some of its