Glass, Pitcher, Fruit-Dish

Juan Gris's Glass, Pitcher, Fruit-Dish (1912) is a graphite drawing with traces of red pencil on ivory laid paper. This early Cubist drawing shows the basic elements of the Cubist still life: a glass, a pitcher, and a fruit dish arranged on a table. The graphite technique is precise and analytical, the lines breaking down the forms of the objects and reconstructing them in the Cubist manner. The traces of red pencil add a subtle color accent. The ivory laid paper provides a warm, textured ground. This drawing from 1912, the year Gris began to exhibit as a Cubist, shows the young artist working through the principles of the movement with the systematic intelligence that would distinguish his career. The still life with glass, pitcher, and fruit dish was a subject that Gris would return to throughout his career, each treatment offering a new analysis of the same essential forms. This early example shows the foundation of his Cubist practice.

Gris's early Cubist drawings document his rapid mastery of the Cubist idiom, showing the analytical intelligence he brought to the movement.

This early graphite still life of a glass, pitcher, and fruit dish shows Gris working through the principles of Cubist analysis, the precise lines breaking down and reconstructing the forms of everyday objects.