The years between 1901 and 1904 are considered Picasso''''s Blue Period, so named for the dominant use of blue in his paintings. From this period, his most outstanding works were The Soup (1902), Crouching Woman, and Blind Man''''s Meal (1903).

Boy with a Dog can be regarded either as a study for one of Picasso''''s circus paintings of 1905 or as an original variation of the motif. The study was linked with the artist''''s work on a composition depicting a group of traveling circus artistes. Captured in the figure of the young boy is a sense of poignant melancholy, while the gentle grey-blue tones with strokes of rose-pink gouache on the brown cardboard ground make it possible to date the study to the beginning of Picasso''''s Rose Period.