The place Ravignan was the site of the Bateau-Lavoir, a run-down complex of artists’ studios, including that of Picasso and Gris, on the hill of Montmartre. While the painting clearly follows the grid visible in the drawing at right, Gris added a slight curve to almost every line, imbuing the painting with a sense of buoyancy. The lower left corner bears a dedication to the artist Francis Picabia (1879–1953), a fellow exhibitor and sponsor of the October 1912 “Section d’Or” exhibition, where this painting was first shown in public.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Houses in Paris, Place Ravignan
Artist:Juan Gris (Spanish, Madrid 1887–1927 Boulogne-sur-Seine)
Date:Paris, 1911, possibly 1912
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:20 1/2 x 13 3/8 in. (52.1 x 34 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection
Inscription: Inscribed and signed (lower left, in brown paint): A mon cher ami PicaBia / avec toute l'admiration de / Juan Gris
the artist (gift to Picabia); Francis Picabia, Paris (by 1912 until at least ca. 1935); [Galerie Zak, Paris]; [Galerie Percier (André Level), Paris]; Douglas Cooper, London (February 1938–d. 1984; inv. no. 95, estate no. DC 12 G 280; his bequest to McCarty-Cooper); his partner and adopted son, William McCarty-Cooper, London (1984–87; sold in March 1987 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (from 1987)
Paris. Galerie La Boétie. "Salon de la 'Section d’Or'," October 10–30, 1912, no. 53 (as "Toile n° 29").
Venice. Biennale. "XXV Biennale di Venezia," June 8–October 15, 1950, no. 12 (shown in Sala V, “Quattro maestri del Cubismo"; as 1912).
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. "Juan Gris," July 20–September 29, 1974, no. 5 (as 1912; as 1911 in errata).
Paris. Galerie Berggruen. "Exposition Juan Gris," November 1977.
London. Tate Gallery. "The Essential Cubism, 1907–1920: Braque, Picasso & their friends," April 27–July 10, 1983, extended to July 31, 1983, no. 58 (as summer 1911).
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "Juan Gris," October 16–December 31, 1983, no. 5.
University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley. "Juan Gris," February 1–April 8, 1984, no. 5.
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Juan Gris," May 18–July 15, 1984, no. 5.
Houston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism," October 14–December 30, 1990, no. 15.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism," January 31–April 21, 1991, no. 15.
Ferrara. Palazzo dei Diamanti. "Il Cubismo: Rivoluzione e tradizione," October 3, 2004–January 9, 2005, no. 18.
Madrid. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. "Juan Gris: Paintings and Drawings 1910–1927," June 22–September 19, 2005, no. 10.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 19.
Salon de la "Section d’Or". Exh. cat., Galerie La Boétie. Paris, 1912, p. 8, no. 53.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Juan Gris: His Life and Work. New York, 1947, p. 169, pl. 3, as 1912.
Douglas Cooper inXXV Biennale di Venezia: Catalogo. Exh. cat., Biennale. Venice, 1950, p. 54, no. 12.
Douglas Cooper. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Bern. Bern, 1955, unpaginated, no. 4.
José Camón Aznar. Picasso y el Cubismo. Madrid, 1956, p. 721, fig. 24, as 1912.
Douglas Cooper and Hans A. Peters. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. Baden-Baden, 1974, unpaginated, no. 5, ill.
Douglas Cooper with Margaret Potter. Juan Gris: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint. Paris, 1977, vol. 1, p. 16, no. 9, ill. p. 17.
Douglas Cooper and Gary Tinterow. The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & their friends, 1907–1920. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1983, p. 138, no. 58, ill. p. 139.
Mark Rosenthal. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. New York, 1983, pp. 19, 29, 177, no. 5, ill. p. 21.
Max Wykes-Joyce. "An Essential Guide to Cubism." International Herald Tribune (May 14–15, 1983), ill.
Gloria Lewis. "At the Galleries." This Is London (May 13–19, 1983), ill.
Kenneth Silver. "Eminence Gris." Art in America 72, no. 5 (May 1984), p. 153, ill. p. 152.
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts. Houston, 1990, pp. 40, 56 n. 112, p. 60, no. 15, ill. p. 41, fig. 35.
Christopher Green, with Christian Derouet, and Karin von Maur. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery. London, 1992, pp. 117–18, 140 n. 25, fig. 29 (verso).
Francis Picabia: Classique et merveilleux. Exh. cat., Galerie Beaubourg. Vence, 1998, ill. p. 36 (on display in Picabia’s Château de Mai, Mougins, ca. 1935.
Christian Derouet, ed. Juan Gris: Correspondances avec Léonce Rosenberg, 1915–1927. Paris, 1999, p. 67, letter no. 104, p. 67 n. 5, as "Nat[ure] mor[te] et paysage," 1912.
María Teresa Cruz Yábar inJuan Gris, 1887–1927. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Madrid, 2001, ill. p. 91.
Marilyn McCully et al. Il Cubismo: Rivoluzione e tradizione. Ed. Michael Raeburn. Exh. cat., Palazzo dei Diamanti. Ferrara, 2004, p. 142, no. 18, ill. p. 143.
Paloma Esteban Leal inJuan Gris: Paintings and Drawings 1910–1927. Ed. Paloma Esteban Leal. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Madrid, 2005, vol. 1, p. 31, and unpaginated, no. 10, ill., vol. 2, p. 19, no. 10, ill.
Paz García Ponce de León. Juan Gris: La pasión por el Cubismo. Madrid, 2008, p. 204, ill. p. 207.
Juan Gris: Rimes de la forme et de la couleur. Exh. cat., Musée Paul Valéry. Sète, 2011, p. 52.
Lisa Werner. Der Kubismus stellt aus: Der Salon de la Section d'Or, Paris 1912. Berlin, 2011, pp. 82, 172, 238, 284, 324, no. 53, ill. p. 284 (app., color), no. 31.
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 46.
Douglas Cooper, with Margaret Potter, updated by Alan Hyman, and Elizabeth Snowden. Juan Gris: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint/ Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1977). San Francisco, 2014, vol. 1, pp. 18–19, no. 9, ill.
Harry Cooper inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 69, 72, 306(2)n.13, no. 19, ill. p. 71 (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 256–57, fig. 19 (on display in Francis Picabia's Château de Mai, Mougins, France, ca. 1935).
Emily Braun. "Shadows, Shading, and Shades." The Cubism Seminars. Ed. Harry Cooper. Washington, D.C., 2017, p. 35.
Véronique Serrano. "Nature morte et paysage. Place Ravignan." Dictionnaire du Cubisme. Ed. Brigitte Leal. Paris, 2018, p. 522.
An unfinished oil painting of an unidentified woman [possibly Germaine Raynal] is on the verso of this work.
Written on the verso (right stretcher bar, in white crayon): No 13
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