The smoker

Along with Braque and Picasso, Juan Gris is considered one of the three great Cubist painters. His real name was José Victoriano González, although has gone down in history by his pseudonym, "Juan Gris".

He was born in Madrid in 1887, and moved to Paris when he was very young. He got to know Picasso and began to paint in the analytical Cubist style, in which the figures are more recognizable. Like Picasso, he used collage, incorporating other elements onto the canvas, especially paper. His work often includes items such as newspaper headlines. He continued to paint in the Cubist manner for the rest of his life, and he died in Paris at the age of 40.

In this work, The Smoker, he divided the figure into geometric parts, and rearranged them to that we can only just make out the figure itself. He used very strong colours, blues, greens, reds, blacks and whites, arranged like the segments of a stained glass window.

(c) (R) 2013, MUSMon com S.L.
Text (a) Catalina Serrano Romero

Picture
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Author: Botaurus
Permission: This artwork is in the public domain: The author of this artwork died more than 70 years ago. According to E.U. Copyright Law, copyright expires 70 years after the author's death. In other countries, legislation may differ.