Mendiant

Arising out of his "Blue Period," Picasso painted Mendiant in 1904, just a few years after his close friend, Carlos Casagemas, committed suicide. Picasso was very much consumed with sadness over his loss. His works reflected this tragedy, as his focus was shifted to human suffering, especially responsive to the less fortunate and those most consumed with the harsh realities of modern life. Beggars, prostitutes, the poor--models of isolation and destitution with haunting faces--became prolific subjects in his works. These subjects were embodiments drawn from his actual surroundings; however, they were not always specific people but Picasso's own depiction and creations. "Picasso chose to paint misfortunes: 'beggars, sick people, the cripple, the hungry and prostitutes...in the same style'" (P. Daix and G. Boudaille, Picasso, The Blue and Rose Periods, A Catalogue Raisonné 1900-1906, Neuchâtel, 1966, p. 51).

In Mendiant, Picasso depicts an anonymous beggar, sitting and isolated in time and space, but also pictured as forlorn and hunched over as the years and hardships have slowly aged him. His hands are gathered in front of his emaciated torso, grasping an infant in swaddling clothes. He is, no doubt, waiting for a handout, but the potential donors are absent; however, his gaze is haunting and expressionless, peering out to the next passerby for some pittance and compassion for himself and his child. He is shown in profile. Picasso does not confront the viewer with the beggar's straightforward gaze but instead allows us to view him without the viewer being noticed. He is in a secluded moment, and we are in the presence of his suffering without being seen. We are merely onlookers, like the passing pedestrians who never truly see him. "It is the silence of suffering humanity, the world's movement arrested at the moment of gravest misfortune" (ibid., p. 62).