Picasso painted *The Old Guitarist* in 1903.
More precisely, the work was begun in late 1903 and completed in early 1904, which explains why some museum records give the date as 1903–04. The single year 1903 is the standard short answer and is the date most commonly associated with the painting.
The oil painting shows an elderly, impoverished musician hunched over his guitar in a narrow, elongated pose. Its restricted palette of blue and blue-black tones places it firmly within Picasso’s Blue Period, which is generally dated from 1901 to 1904. The mood reflects Picasso’s identification with poor and marginalised people, as well as the emotional shock following the 1901 suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas.
The guitar is the painting’s main warm-coloured element, standing out against the cold blues. Infrared and X-ray studies later revealed several earlier compositions beneath the visible image, including figures of a mother and child. The painting is now in the Art Institute of Chicago.