Gris based this image on a postcard reproduction of Paul Cézanne’s portrait of his wife Hortense Fiquet. (The actual canvas, which Gris never saw, is owned by the Art Institute of Chicago.) During World War I, Cézanne’s art was touted as a continuation of France’s grand artistic tradition, and he was credited for emphasizing the permanence and stability of geometric forms. In defining his new style of Synthetic Cubism, Gris claimed that “Cézanne turns a bottle into a cylinder, but I begin with a cylinder and create an individual [object] of a specific type: I make a bottle—a particular bottle—out of a cylinder.”
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Medium:Graphite on paper (recto); graphite on paper (verso)
Dimensions:8 1/4 × 6 1/2 in. (21 × 16.5 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Gift of Leonard A. Lauder, 2016
Object Number:2016.237.27a, b
[Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, in 1965; sold to private collection]; private collection, Paris (until 1993; sold in May 1993 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (1993–13; transferred on April 8, 2013 to the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust); The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust, New York (2013–16; gift to MMA)
Paris. Galerie Louise Leiris. "Juan Gris: Dessins et gouaches, 1910–1927," June 17–July 17, 1965, no. 22 (as "Portrait après Cézanne").
Paris. Orangerie des Tuileries. "Juan Gris," March 14–July 1, 1974, no. 131.
New York. Pierpont Morgan Library. "New York Collects: Drawings and Watercolors, 1900–1950," May 20–August 29, 1999, no. 27.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 31.
Juan Gris: Dessins et gouaches, 1910–1927. Exh. cat., Galerie Louise Leiris. Paris, 1965, unpaginated (checklist), no. 22, ill. p. 29.
Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Orangerie des Tuileries. Paris, 1974, p. 120, no. 131, ill.
Juan Antonio Gaya-Nuño. Juan Gris. Barcelona, [1974], p. 241, no. 96, ill. p. 80, as "Retrato".
Juan Antonio Gaya-Nuño. Juan Gris. Boston, 1975, p. 245, no. 96, ill. p. 80, as "Portrait".
Christopher Green. Léger and the Avant-Garde. New Haven, 1976, p. 127, pl. 77.
Douglas Cooper with Margaret Potter. Juan Gris: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint. Paris, 1977, vol. 2, p. 28, no. 257b, ill. p. 29, as "Madame Cézanne," 1918.
Christopher Green inFernand Léger, 1881–1955. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin. Berlin, 1980, ill. p. 128.
Juan Antonio Gaya-Nuño. Juan Gris. Barcelona, 1985, p. 127, fig. 74, lists it in a private collection, Paris.
Christopher Green inJuan Gris (1887–1927). Ed. Gary Tinterow. Exh. cat., Salas Pablo Ruiz Picasso. Madrid, 1985, p. 101, fig. 11, as "Madame Cézanne," 1917–18.
Marilyn McCully inNew York Collects: Drawings and Watercolors, 1900–1950. Exh. cat., Pierpont Morgan Library. New York, 1999, p. 84, no. 27, ill. p. 85.
Gregory Galligan. "The Cube in the Kaleidoscope: The American Reception of French Cubism, 1918–1938." PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2007, pp. xxix, 406, pl. 133, erroneously listed as belonging in a private collection, Paris.
"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, as "Portrait of Madame Cézanne (Portrait de Madame Cézanne)".
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. 2, p. 444, no. 257b, ill., as "Madame Cézanne/Madame Cézanne Seated: After Paul Cézanne," 1918.
Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 231, fig. 101 (verso, drawing).
Kenneth E. Silver inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 196–99, 201, no. 31, ill. p. 198 (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, p. 266.
Dita Amory in Dita Amory. Madame Cézanne. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 171, n. 39.
Dita Amory and Kathryn Kremnitzer in Dita Amory. Madame Cézanne. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 165, 167, 185, n. 14, fig. 78.
Vérane Tasseau. "Lauder (Leonard A.)." Dictionnaire du Cubisme. Ed. Brigitte Leal. Paris, 2018, p. 405.
Written on the verso (upper left, in graphite): 5494 [or 5794 or 5999]; (lower and center left, in graphite): 21 3 x 16’m (et 5996 verso); (lower right, in graphite): 33 [encircled]; (center and bottom of the sheet, in graphite): [caricatures by the artist]
Juan Gris (Spanish, Madrid 1887–1927 Boulogne-sur-Seine)
ca. 1927
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