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In the latter part of 1901, Picasso sank into a severe depression,and blue tones began to dominate his paintings. Picasso’s painting La mort de Casagemas, completed early in the year following his friend’s suicide, 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. Although his career had been promising before 1901, and early in the year he was making “a splash” in Paris, as he moved towards subject matter such as the poor and the outcast of society, and emphasized a cool, anguished mood with blue hues, the critics and the public turned away from his works