On the Castellana

In 1906, the year in which he executed the present work, Gris moved from Madrid to Paris. He took a small flat in Montmartre and supported himself by working as an illustrator for such magazines and papers as L'Assiette au Beurre, Le Cri de Paris and Le Charivari. As Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was to recall: "The Paris of 1906 which Gris first knew was the Paris of men in top-hats and pointed boots, of women in leg-of-mutton sleeves and long tightly-fitting skirts, of horse-buses, and four-wheelers. He sat down to draw it and earn a living" (D.-H. Kahnweiler, Juan Gris: His Life and Work, London 1947, p. 7). On the Castellana is reminiscent of Toulouse-Lautrec's celebrated images of Paris, as Gris captures the elegance and social life of the French capital at the turn of the century.