Lot Essay
Bouteille et verre, painted in 1917, has a particularly distinguished provenance. It was given as a gift by the artist to Léonce Rosenberg, one of the foremost entrepreneurs behind the Parisian avant-garde, whose Galerie l'Effort Moderne arranged pivotal exhibitions by Gris, Léger, Picasso and Severini.
Bouteille et verre was executed when Gris was deeply immersed in his experimentation with synthetic Cubism, in particular his exploration of "the reciprocal relationship of structure to object" (M. Rosenthal, Juan Gris, New York, exhibition catalogue, 1983, p. 101). For Gris Cubism was not just a style, it was an aesthetic, or even a state of mind.
The world from which I draw the elements of reality is not
visual but imaginative...Through the way of looking at the
world and the concentration of certain aspects--that is to
say, the aesthetic--has varied from period to period, the
relationship of one coloured form to another--that is to say,
the technique--has always, so to speak, remained fixed. I therefore believe that my technique is classical, for I have
learnt it form the masters of the past. (J. Gris, quoted in the
exhibition catalogue, , Buchholz Gallery, 1949)
Gris' use of the newspaper heading, Le Journal in Bouteille et verre illustrates the increasing importance of the written word in his work. Words first begin to appear in Gris' work with his papier collé compositions, but by the winter of 1914-1915 he abandoned this technique in favor of painting them in trompe l'oeil. This new approach helped him achieve a more formal unity in his compositions and moved them beyond the realm of merely becoming objects.
Bouteille et verre was executed when Gris was deeply immersed in his experimentation with synthetic Cubism, in particular his exploration of "the reciprocal relationship of structure to object" (M. Rosenthal, Juan Gris, New York, exhibition catalogue, 1983, p. 101). For Gris Cubism was not just a style, it was an aesthetic, or even a state of mind.
The world from which I draw the elements of reality is not
visual but imaginative...Through the way of looking at the
world and the concentration of certain aspects--that is to
say, the aesthetic--has varied from period to period, the
relationship of one coloured form to another--that is to say,
the technique--has always, so to speak, remained fixed. I therefore believe that my technique is classical, for I have
learnt it form the masters of the past. (J. Gris, quoted in the
exhibition catalogue, , Buchholz Gallery, 1949)
Gris' use of the newspaper heading, Le Journal in Bouteille et verre illustrates the increasing importance of the written word in his work. Words first begin to appear in Gris' work with his papier collé compositions, but by the winter of 1914-1915 he abandoned this technique in favor of painting them in trompe l'oeil. This new approach helped him achieve a more formal unity in his compositions and moved them beyond the realm of merely becoming objects.