The Man with the Blue Guitar

The Old Guitarist is a picture by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1903, just after the suicide death of Picasso's close friend, Casagemas. Picasso's “Blue Period” spanned the years of 1901–1904, and was followed by his “Rose Period”. These periods were both precursors to Cubism, which defined much of Picasso's career.
The Old Guitarist depicts a blind man, clad in tattered rags, huddled about his guitar. The figure is reportedly modeled after Senor Sebastian Mazzarella, the blind artist who mentored Picasso in his earlier days in Madrid.
This work made in the distorted style (note that the upper torso of the guitarist seems to be reclining, while the bottom half appears to be sitting cross-legged) is reminiscent of the works of El Greco.
The painting is also notable for the ghostly presence of a mysterious image painted underneath it. It is very likely that Picasso originally started painting a portrait of a woman, who appears to possibly be seated, and then changed his mind and painted the guitarist over her to save canvas.

The Man with the Blue Guitar

Wallace Stevens penned the poem “The Man With the Blue Guitar” after viewing this piece, though in the poem the guitar, rather than the man, becomes blue. The blueness here becomes an image of the transformative power of art, as expressed in the opening lines,

The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, “You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.”
The man replied, “Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.”
And they said then, “But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar
Of things exactly as they are.”

A Beatle's Version

Viewing this painting in the hospital after the birth of his daughter, Paul McCartney was inspired to write his 2 finger song. McCartney observes that the old man in the picture was infact using just two fingers while playing . Finding this strange McCartney,a multi instrumentalist himself, tries to copy the old man's fingering and play what he believed the old man was playing, using his own guitar.Having struck on a note he then tunes a song using just two basic notes.
You may listen to the song by clicking the link.