The sense of movement and intrigue in this diagonally oriented painting is palpable: someone has quickly left the scene, leaving a shawl or cloak behind on the chair and a crumpled napkin and folded newspaper on the table. The blade of the black knife at far left, dangerously angled at the table’s edge, infuses the painting with menace, while the goblet at right seems to levitate upward at an angle. A fluted design on its base almost appears as the fingers of an invisible intruder. In contrast to Braque and Picasso, Gris reveled in garish colors that add narrative drama to his still lifes.
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Title:Pears and Grapes on a Table
Artist:Juan Gris (Spanish, Madrid 1887–1927 Boulogne-sur-Seine)
Date:Céret, autumn 1913
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:21 1/2 × 28 3/4 in. (54.6 × 73 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection
Inscription: Signed and dated (verso, left, in black paint): Juan Gris / ceret 10-13 [now concealed by relining; visible in infrared transmitted light; signature reproduced on relining]
[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, 1913–14; photo no. 5032; probably sold in 1914 to Rosenberg]; [Léonce Rosenberg, Paris, 1914–18; entrusted ca. 1914–18 to Washington Square Gallery (Michael Brenner and Robert J. Coady), New York; his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, May 3, 1918, no. 90, as "Still Life: Pears, Grapes, and Newspapers on a Table," sold for $35, to Quinn]; John Quinn, New York (1918–d.1924; his estate, 1924–26; his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, October 28, 1926, no. 56, as "Nature morte," sold for Fr 6,000, to an unidentified bidder, probably Bing); [Galerie Bing & Cie (Henri Bing), Paris, probably 1926–32]; Mrs. J. Rückstuhl, Küssnacht (near Lucerne), Switzerland (by 1932–38; sold in 1938, through Galerie Rosengart vormals Thannhauser [Siegfried Rosengart], Lucerne to Clifford); Henry C. and Esther Clifford, Philadelphia (1938–39); [Valentine Gallery (Valentine Dudensing), New York, 1939–47; sold in 1947 for $6,500 to Tremaine]; Burton G. and Emily H. Tremaine, Meriden, Connecticut (1947– her d. 1987); Burton G. Tremaine, Meriden, Connecticut (1987–d. 1991; his estate sale, Christie's, New York, November 5, 1991, no. 4, sold to private collection); private collection, New York (1991–95; sold in 1995 to Acquavella); [Acquavella Contempory Art, Inc., New York, 1995; sold in March 1995 to Lauder]; Leonard A. Lauder, New York (from 1995)
Arts Club of Chicago. "Retrospective Exhibition: Juan Gris (1887–1927)," January 3–27, 1939, no. 12 (as "La chaise").
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Art in Progress," May 24–October 15, 1944, unnumbered cat. (p. 72).
Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Painting toward Architecture," December 1947 (traveled to twenty-four American cities, 1948–52).
Buffalo. Albright Art Gallery. "Fifty Paintings, 1905–1913," May 14–June 12, 1955, no. 19.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Juan Gris," April 9–June 1, 1958, unnumbered cat. (p. 32).
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Juan Gris," June 24–July 24, 1958, unnumbered cat.
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Juan Gris," August 11–September 14, 1958, unnumbered cat.
Los Angeles County Museum. "Juan Gris," September 29–October 26, 1958, unnumbered cat.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Paths of Abstract Art," October 5–November 13, 1960, no. 20.
Paris. Orangerie des Tuileries. "Juan Gris," March 14–July 1, 1974, no. 23.
Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," April 10–May 11, 1975, no. 42 (as "Still Life with Pears").
Melbourne. National Gallery of Victoria. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," May 28–June 22, 1975, no. 42.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," August 4–September 1, 1975, no. 42.
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art," June 1–July 30, 1978, no. 21 (as "Still Life with Pears").
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "Juan Gris," October 16–December 31, 1983, no. 21.
University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley. "Juan Gris," February 1–April 8, 1984, no. 21.
Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum. "The Tremaine Collection: 20th Century Masters—The Spirit of Modernism," February 26–April 29, 1984, unnumbered cat. (p. 34; as "Still Life with Pears").
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Juan Gris," May 18–July 15, 1984, no. 21.
Madrid. Salas Pablo Ruiz Picasso. "Juan Gris (1887–1927)," September 20–November 24, 1985, no. 20.
Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Delaunay to de Kooning: Modern Masters from the Tremaine Collection and the Wadsworth Atheneum," May 4–September 15, 1991.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 21.
Centre Pompidou, Paris, Galerie 1. "Le Cubisme," October 17, 2018–February 25, 2019, unnumbered cat. (p. 159).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism and the Trompe l'Oeil Tradition," October 17, 2022–January 22, 2023, unnumbered cat. (pl. 57).
Waldemar George. "Několik stránek moderního sochařství ve Francij." Volné Směry 22 (1923–24), p. 61, ill. as "Zátišĺ".
LXXIII. Výstava: Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Síň Mánesa. Prague, 1924, unpaginated, ill., as "Zátiší" [still life].
Forbes Watson. John Quinn, 1870–1925: Collection of Paintings, Water Colors, Drawings and Sculpture. Huntington, N.Y., 1926, p. 10.
Albert Dreyfus. "Deux études allemandes sur l'art contemporain." Cahiers d'art 1 (1926), ill. p. 217.
"Une Conférence de Juan Gris." Cahiers d'art 8 (1933), ill. pp. 184–85.
Retrospective Exhibition: Juan Gris (1887–1927). Exh. cat., Arts Club of Chicago. Chicago, 1939, no. 12.
Art in Progress. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1944, p. 221, ill. p. 72.
Henry-Russell Hitchcock. Painting toward Architecture. New York, 1948, pp. 58, 117, ill. p. 59.
Alonzo M. Lansford. "Miller Collection Presents Art as Step-Mother of Architecture." Art Digest 22, no. 9 (February 1, 1948), p. 12, cover ill.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Les Années héroïques du Cubisme. Paris, 1950, ill. no. 12, as "Nature morte aux fruits".
Fifty Paintings, 1905–1913. Exh. cat., Albright Art Gallery. Buffalo, 1955, p. 19, no. 19, ill. p. 41.
James Thrall Soby. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1958, p. 117, ill. p. 32.
Edward B. Henning. Paths of Abstract Art. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1960, p. 21, no. 20, ill. p. 13, and colorpl. III.
Michel Seuphor. Abstract Painting: Fifty Years of Accomplishment, from Kandinsky to the Present. New York, 1962, p. 305, no. 13, ill. p. 19 (French ed., as Nature morte aux poires), as "Still Life with Pears".
Herta Wescher. Die Collage: Geschichte eines künstlerischen Ausdrucksmittels. Cologne, 1968, p. 28, as "Stilleben mit Birnen," October 1913.
Paul Waldo Schwartz. Cubism. New York, 1971, pp. 126, 210, ill. no. 88.
Herta Wescher. Collage. New York, 1971, p. 28, as "Still Life with Pears," October 1913.
Jean Leymarie inJuan Gris. Exh. cat., Orangerie des Tuileries. Paris, 1974, p. 13.
Douglas Cooper and Hans A. Peters. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. Baden-Baden, 1974, unpaginated, no. 19, ill.
Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Orangerie des Tuileries. Paris, 1974, p. 82, no. 23, ill.
Juan Antonio Gaya-Nuño. Juan Gris. Barcelona, [1974], p. 243, no. 251, ill. p. 209, as "Dulcera, periódico, peras y uvas".
Juan Antonio Gaya-Nuño. Juan Gris. Boston, 1975, p. 247, no. 251, ill. p. 213, as "Fruit-bowl, Newspaper, Pears and Grapes".
William S. Lieberman, ed. Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. New York, 1975, p. 158, ill. p. 159.
Douglas Cooper with Margaret Potter. Juan Gris: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint. Paris, 1977, vol. 1, p. 104, no. 61, ill. p. 105, as October 1913.
Judith Zilczer. "The Noble Buyer:" John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Exh. cat., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, 1978, p. 161.
Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 117, no. 21, ill. p. 34.
Malcolm Gee. Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930. PhD diss., Courtauld Institute of Art. New York, 1981, appendix G, p. 144 (i), no. 101.
Mark Rosenthal. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. New York, 1983, pp. 46, 50, 178, no. 21, ill. p. 49.
Kenneth Silver. "Eminence Gris." Art in America 72, no. 5 (May 1984), p. 155.
The Tremaine Collection: 20th Century Masters. The Spirit of Modernism. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum. Hartford, 1984, p. 34, ill.
Christopher Green inJuan Gris (1887–1927). Ed. Gary Tinterow. Exh. cat., Salas Pablo Ruiz Picasso. Madrid, 1985, p. 103, fig. 24.
Gary Tinterow, ed. Juan Gris (1887–1927). Exh. cat., Salas Pablo Ruiz Picasso. Madrid, 1985, p. 146, no. 20, ill. p. 147.
Michael Findlay. "The Tremaine Collection." Christie’s: Review of the Season 1992. Ed. Francis Russell with Peter Fergrieve Brown. London, 1992, pp. 82, 84, ill. p. 85 (color).
Philip Cooper. Cubism. London, 1995, pp. 28, 80, fig. 25.
Christian Derouet, ed. Juan Gris: Correspondances avec Léonce Rosenberg, 1915–1927. Paris, 1999, p. 118.
L. Kathleen Housley. Emily Hall Tremaine: Collector on the Cusp. Meriden, Conn., 2001, pp. 94, 238.
Paz García Ponce de León. Juan Gris: La pasión por el Cubismo. Madrid, 2008, p. 246, ill. p. 247.
John Richardson. "Cubism Steals the Show." Vanity Fair 55, no. 6 (June 2013), ill. p. 46 (on display in the Sherman Fairchild Paintings Conservation Center, MMA).
"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. 116, no. 61, ill., as October 1913.
Emily Braun inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 126–28, 311(3)n.10, 321(2)n.18, no. 21, ill. p. 127 (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. 258–59.
Brigitte Leal, Christian Briend, and Ariane Coulondre, ed. Le Cubisme. Exh. cat., Centre Pompidou, Galerie 1. Paris, 2018, p. 310, ill. p. 159 (color).
Brigitte Leal, Christian Briend, and Ariane Coulondre, ed. The Cubist Cosmos: From Picasso to Léger. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Munich, 2019, p. 310, ill. p. 159 (color) [German ed., Munich, 2019].
Emily Braun in Emily Braun and Elizabeth Cowling. Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2022, pp. 21, 28, 159, 244, 252 n. 57, colorpl. 57.
Written on the verso (inverted, left of top stretcher bar, in pencil): 1 43#; (right of top stretcher bar, in pencil): 75.79; (bottom of right stretcher bar, in pencil): 75.79
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