Juan Gris (1887-1927)
Property from the Collection of Carlton Lake
Juan Gris (1887-1927)

Nature morte

细节
Juan Gris (1887-1927)
Nature morte
signed and inscribed 'Juan Gris Esquisse' (center left) and signed again and dedicated 'Juan Gris A mon cher Raynal' (lower right)
charcoal, colored wax crayons and pen and ink on parchment paper
28¾ x 17 3/8 in. (73 x 44.2 cm.)
Drawn in 1911
来源
Maurice Raynal, Paris (gift from the artist).
Acquired from the family of the above by the late owner, circa 1985.
展览
Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie des Tuileries, Juan Gris, March-July 1974, p. 116, no. 121 (illustrated).
Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Juan Gris, July-September 1974, no. Z 11 (illustrated).

拍品专文

The present still life is notable for its unusually impressive scale as well as its date (1911), being among the artist's earliest cubist compositions, Gris having only recently abandoned his career as an illustrator in order to focus on his painting and the incipient cubist movement in 1910. Befitting its relative size and finish, Nature morte contains the hallmarks of Gris's draftsmanship--namely assured application and carefully appointed objects. In the year following its execution, Gris would exhibit his work at the Salon des Indépendants and began his formal relationship with dealer D.H. Kahnweiler, whose unwavering support--both emotional and financial--would buoy the artist for the rest of his life.

The dedicatee and first owner of the present work was modernist art critic and historian Maurice Raynal, who proved one of Cubism's staunchest defenders and whose portrait (fig. 1)--along with that of his wife, Germaine--Gris would paint around this time (Cooper, nos. 4 and 28). The late owner acquired Nature morte directly from the Raynal descendants in the 1980s.

(fig. 1) Juan Gris, Portrait de Maurice Raynal, 1912.