Gris collaborated with his friend, the poet Pierre Reverdy, on a commissioned book, but the project stalled during World War I and remained unfinished at the time of Gris’s death. A reduced version, with color lithograph reproductions of eleven of Gris’s original still lifes, was published some thirty years later. The Reverdy poem that accompanies this image is titled “Compotier” (“The Fruit Bowl”): A hand reaches toward the arrangement of fruit and, like a bee, hovers over it. The circle where the fingers glide is drawn tight as a trap—then they resume their flight, leaving at the bottom of the dish a bright red scar. A drop of blood, of honey, on the fingertips. Between light and teeth, the web of desire weaves the bowlful of lips.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Fruit Bowl
Artist:Juan Gris (Spanish, Madrid 1887–1927 Boulogne-sur-Seine)
Date:Paris, 1915–16
Medium:Graphite, wax crayon, and gouache on blue wove paper-faced paperboard
Dimensions:10 11/16 × 8 1/2 in. (27.1 × 21.6 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Gift of Leonard A. Lauder, 2016
Accession Number:2016.237.4
the artist (1915/16–d. 1927); his heirs, Paris (1927–56; sold in 1956, through Galerie Louise Leiris [Daniel Henry Kahnweiler], Paris, to Saidenberg); [Saidenberg Gallery (Daniel and Eleanore B. Saidenberg), New York, 1956; sold in 1956 to Rothschild]; Herbert and Nannette Rothschild, Kitchawan, New York (1956–his d. 1976); Nannette Rothschild, Kitchawan, New York (1976–d. 1979); her daughter, Judith Rothschild, New York (1979–d. 1993; in 1993 to Rothschild Foundation); The Judith Rothschild Foundation, New York (1993–2004; sold in April 2004 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (2004–2013; 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)
New York. Saidenberg Gallery. "Juan Gris Paintings, including 10 Gouaches of 1916...," April 2–May 26, 1956.
Providence. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. "Herbert and Nannette Rothschild Collection," October 7–November 6, 1966, no. 63 (as 1916).
Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York at Purchase. "Juan Gris, Pierre Reverdy: A Cubist Collaboration," February 3–March 30, 1980, no. 4 (as 1916).
Madrid. Salas Pablo Ruiz Picasso. "Juan Gris (1887–1927)," September 20–November 24, 1985, no. 131.
London. Whitechapel Art Gallery. "Juan Gris," September 17–November 29, 1992, no. 55 (as 1915).
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "Encounters with Modern Art: The Reminiscences of Nannette F. Rothschild," September 22, 1996–January 26, 1997, unnumbered cat. (pl. 32; as 1916).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Encounters with Modern Art: The Reminiscences of Nannette F. Rothschild," March 2–May 11, 1997, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 30.
Pierre Reverdy with illustrations by Juan Gris. Au soleil du plafond. Paris, 1955, ill. (lithograph; corresponding poem on pp. 117–20).
Daniel Robbins and George E. Downing. The Herbert and Nannette Rothschild Collection. Exh. cat., Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Providence, 1966, unpaginated, no. 63, ill.
Juan Gris, Pierre Reverdy: A Cubist Collaboration. Exh. brochure, Neuberger Museum. Purchase, N.Y., 1980, unpaginated (checklist), no. 4, ill.
Christopher Green. "Synthesis and the 'Synthetic Process' in the Painting of Juan Gris, 1915–19." Art History 5 (March 1982), pp. 91, 103 n. 30, as 1915.
Gary Tinterow, ed. Juan Gris (1887–1927). Exh. cat., Salas Pablo Ruiz Picasso. Madrid, 1985, p. 342, no. 131, ill.
Christopher Green, with Christian Derouet, and Karin von Maur. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery. London, 1992, p. 212, pl. 55.
Nannette F. Rothschild inEncounters with Modern Art: The Reminiscences of Nannette F. Rothschild. Works from the Rothschild Family Collections. Ed. George H. Marcus. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Philadelphia, 1996, p. 74, no. 32.
Mark Rosenthal inEncounters with Modern Art: The Reminiscences of Nannette F. Rothschild. Works from the Rothschild Family Collections. Ed. George H. Marcus. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Philadelphia, 1996, p. 154, pl. 32.
George H. Marcus, ed. Encounters with Modern Art: The Reminiscences of Nannette F. Rothschild. Works from the Rothschild Family Collections. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Philadelphia, 1996, p. 159, pl. 32.
Jennifer Pap. "'Entre quatre murs': Reverdy, Cubism, and the Space of Still Life." Word & Image 12 (April–June 1996), pp. 191–93, 196, fig. 2 (as reproduced in Pierre Reverdy and Juan Gris's 1955 "Au soleil du plafond"), as "Compotier".
Marilyn McCully inNew York Collects: Drawings and Watercolors, 1900–1950. Exh. cat., Pierpont Morgan Library. New York, 1999, p. 90.
The Collection of Eleanore and Daniel Saidenberg. Sotheby's, New York. November 10, 1999, p. 24, fig. 1, under no. 6.
"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, p. 287, no. 163a, ill., vol. 2, p. 908, under no. L.11 (lithograph).
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. 199, 318(2)n.19, no. 30, ill. p. 200 (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. 265–66, fig. 30 (in Ref. Reverdy and Gris 1955).
Illustration for Pierre Reverdy’s poem "Compotier," in Au soleil du plafond (Paris: Tériade Éditeur, 1955)
Juan Gris (Spanish, Madrid 1887–1927 Boulogne-sur-Seine)
1913
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