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Les Mots croisés by Juan Gris
Portrait of Picasso by Juan Gris
Glass and Water Bottle by Juan Gris
1887–1927 · Spanish

Juan Gris

Gris was the thirteenth of fourteen children. His real name was Jose Victoriano Gonzalez-Perez, which he abandoned for something shorter when he moved to Paris in 1906. He had studied engineering in Madrid and painting under Jose Moreno Carbonero, and sold everything he owned to buy the ticket to France.

Held in 16 museums[1]

Portrait of Juan Gris

Biography

In Paris he moved into the Bateau-Lavoir, the ramshackle building in Montmartre where Picasso had a studio. He earned money drawing satirical cartoons for magazines including L'Assiette au Beurre, an anarchist publication, which suited him: he was an anarchist who believed the state was an unnecessary evil. He did not begin painting seriously until 1911.

What he did with Cubism was different from what Picasso and Braque had done. They worked by intuition, breaking objects apart to see what happened. Gris worked by logic. He started with abstract geometric shapes and built objects back into them, reversing the process. He called it deductive: where Picasso began with a guitar and arrived at abstraction, Gris began with abstraction and arrived at a guitar. His paintings are cleaner, more measured and more deliberate than theirs, which is why the term Synthetic Cubism exists.

Gertrude Stein wrote that Gris was the only person Picasso wished away. The comment captures something real: Gris systematised what Picasso preferred to leave mysterious.

In 1924 he designed sets and costumes for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and delivered a lecture at the Sorbonne on the possibilities of painting. He was forty years old and had been painting seriously for only thirteen years. He died of kidney failure in 1927, at the same age. Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, his dealer and friend, called him the greatest of the Cubists. Most people gave the title to Picasso, but Kahnweiler had reasons.

Timeline

  1. 1887Born Jose Victoriano Gonzalez-Perez on 23 March in Madrid, the thirteenth of fourteen children.
  2. 1906At 19, sold all his possessions and moved to Paris, settling in the Bateau-Lavoir studios in Montmartre where Picasso was his neighbour.
  3. 1911At 24, abandoned his work as a satirical cartoonist in Paris and began painting seriously, developing a personal Cubist style.
  4. 1912At 25, exhibited at the landmark Exposicio d'art cubista in Barcelona, the first declared group exhibition of Cubism, and signed an exclusive contract with dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.
  5. 1914At 27, painted Glasses, Newspaper and Bottle of Wine in Paris, pioneering Synthetic Cubism's use of collage elements and papier colle.
  6. 1922At 35, designed sets and costumes for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris and Monte Carlo, a collaboration that continued until 1924.
  7. 1927Died aged 40 on 11 May in Boulogne-sur-Seine, near Paris, from renal failure after years of declining health that began with pleurisy in 1920.

Juan Gris prints

Hand-finished archival prints from Juan Gris's body of work.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • How did juan gris art differ from picasso?
    Juan Gris approached Cubism differently from Picasso. Picasso and Braque worked intuitively, breaking objects apart to see what would happen, whereas Gris worked by logic. He started with abstract geometric shapes and built objects back into them, reversing the process, which he called deductive.
  • Juan gris facts?
    Juan Gris, whose real name was Jose Victoriano Gonzalez-Perez, was born in Madrid in 1887. He abandoned his birth name for a shorter one when he moved to Paris in 1906. He had fourteen siblings and, before moving to France, he studied engineering and painting.
  • What is Juan Gris's most famous work?
    It is difficult to name one single "most famous" work by Juan Gris, but several pieces are frequently mentioned in discussions of his art. Gris began to paint seriously around 1910, developing his personal Cubist style by 1912. In 1913, he adopted the papier collé technique, which had been pioneered by Braque and Picasso. The Bottle of Martinique Rum, a paper collage from 1914, shows his sophisticated handling of the technique. The pasted elements overlap and intermesh, forming both an abstract composition and a multilayered support for naturalistic details. Still lifes figure prominently in Gris' output. Glasses, Newspaper and a Bottle of Wine (1913) uses sections of newspaper to create an unusual still-life interpretation. The objects are fragmented, painted, and glued back together within parallel vertical planes, using the Cubist technique. Fruit Dish on a Check Tablecloth (1917) reflects his collage technique in the placement of compositional elements and overlapping planes.
  • What should I know about Juan Gris's prints?
    José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez (1887-1927), known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter and sculptor who spent most of his working life in France. Gris began to paint seriously in 1910, and by 1912 he had developed a personal Cubist style. In 1913, Gris began using the papier collé technique developed by Braque and Picasso. By 1914 his handling of the technique was personal and sophisticated. His pasted elements overlap and intermesh with one another in relationships calculated with mathematical precision. These collaged papers cover the entire surface of the canvas, simultaneously forming an abstract composition and serving as a multilayered support for naturalistic details. His first exhibition was in 1912; that same year, D-H Kahnweiler gave Gris a contract that gave him exclusive rights to the artist's work. After Kahnweiler fled Paris at the outbreak of World War I, Gris signed a contract with Léonce Rosenberg in 1916. His first major one-man show was held at Rosenberg's Galerie l'Effort Moderne in Paris in 1919. In 1920, Kahnweiler returned and again became Gris's dealer.
  • What style or movement did Juan Gris belong to?
    Juan Gris is associated with Cubism, a style he developed around 1912. Born José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez in Madrid, Gris moved to Paris in 1906, where he befriended artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Léger. Although he initially contributed humorous illustrations to journals, Gris began painting seriously in 1910. By 1912, he had cultivated his own Cubist aesthetic. His method involved a study of Cézanne, apparent in his early still lifes through simple forms and high angles. Gris distorted perspective in a deliberate way, rendering outlines in an angular fashion. He broke them at intervals, creating areas where forms merge. His works aimed to portray different sections of an object simultaneously. For example, Glasses, Newspaper and a Bottle of Wine (1913) uses sliced sections of newspaper. Gris positioned planes in front of or behind each other, creating perspective and levels of space. In 1913, Gris began using papier collé, a technique developed by Braque and Picasso.
  • What techniques or materials did Juan Gris use?
    Juan Gris, born in Madrid as José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez, moved to Paris in 1906 and began painting seriously around 1910. By 1912, he had developed his own Cubist style. Gris employed collage techniques, especially *papier collé*, using paper cutouts to build compositions. He combined these with media such as gouache, watercolour, charcoal, coloured chalks, and pencil. Gris's method involved assembling simple shapes and overlapping areas to suggest objects. He would dissect represented objects and present each facet from a different viewpoint. His collage elements often had a literal quality. Gris explained his use of a piece of mirror by saying that, while surfaces and volumes can be re-created, a mirror's changing surface requires a real piece. Unlike Picasso and Braque, who added trompe l'oeil details before incorporating fragments, Gris used illusionistic detail and collage almost simultaneously. By 1914, his use of *papier collé* became more complex, covering the entire pictorial surface with paper fragments to achieve cleaner, flatter effects.
  • What was Juan Gris known for?
    Juan Gris (1887-1927) was a Spanish painter and sculptor. He lived and worked in France for most of his career, and is closely associated with Cubism; his works are among the movement’s most distinctive examples. Gris was born José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez in Madrid. He studied mechanical drawing in Madrid from 1902 to 1904, also contributing drawings to local periodicals. From 1904 to 1905, he studied painting with José Maria Carbonero. Gris moved to Paris in 1906, where he befriended Picasso, Braque, Léger, and writers such as Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire. Though he continued to submit illustrations to journals, Gris began to paint seriously in 1910, developing a personal Cubist style by 1912. That year, he exhibited in Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, and Rouen. In 1913, Gris began using the papier collé technique, developed by Braque and Picasso. His handling of the technique became sophisticated, as seen in works such as *The Bottle of Martinique Rum*. Gris presented his aesthetic theories in a lecture, "Des Possibilités de la peinture," at the Sorbonne in 1924. He died in Boulogne-sur-Seine at the age of forty.
  • When did juan gris die?
    Juan Gris died in 1927 at the age of 40.
  • When did Juan Gris live and work?
    José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez (known as Juan Gris) was born in Madrid on 23 March 1887. He died in Boulogne-sur-Seine on 11 May 1927 at the age of forty. Gris studied at the Escuela de Artes y Manufacturas in Madrid from 1902 to 1904, where he learned mechanical drawing. From 1904 to 1905, he studied painting with José Maria Carbonero. In 1906, Gris moved to Paris, where he resided for most of his life. There, he befriended artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Léger, as well as writers like Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire. Gris began painting seriously around 1910 and, by 1912, had developed his own Cubist style. That year, he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris, the Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona, and other galleries. In 1922, Gris designed ballet sets and costumes for Sergei Diaghilev. He articulated his aesthetic theories in 1924 and 1925, delivering a lecture at the Sorbonne in 1924.
  • When did juan gris start painting?
    Juan Gris did not begin painting seriously until 1911.
  • Where can I see Juan Gris's work?
    Juan Gris (born José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez in Madrid, in 1887) moved to Paris in 1906 and lived there for most of his life. He became a central figure in the Cubist movement. To see examples of his work, consider visiting the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Their collection includes Houses in Paris (Maisons à Paris), from 1911; Bottle and Glass (Bouteille et verre; Fruit Bowl; Black, White, Tan; Glass and Carafe), from February 1917; and Fruit Dish on a Check Tablecloth (Pink and Green; Compotier), from November 1917. Gris's paintings have also been exhibited at the Tate Gallery, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Kunstmuseum Basel; and the Galerie Simon in Paris. He had major exhibitions at the Galerie Flechtheim in Berlin in 1923 and in Düsseldorf in 1925.
  • Where was Juan Gris from?
    Juan Gris was born José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez in Madrid, Spain, on 23 March 1887. From 1902 to 1904, he studied mechanical drawing at the Escuela de Artes y Manufactures in Madrid. During this period, he also contributed drawings to local periodicals. He then studied painting with José Maria Carbonero from 1904 to 1905. Gris moved to Paris in 1906, where he resided for most of his life. In Paris, he befriended artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Léger, as well as writers like Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire. While continuing to produce humorous illustrations for journals, Gris began painting seriously in 1910. By 1912, he had developed his own Cubist style. Gris died in Boulogne-sur-Seine in 1927 at the age of forty.

Sources

Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Juan Gris.

  1. [1] museum Musée d'Art Moderne de Fontevraud Used for: museum holdings.
  2. [2] book Beard, Lee, 1973- author, Butler, Adam, author; Van Cleave, Claire, author; Fortenberry, Diane, author; Stirling, Susan, author, Beard, Lee, 1973- author, Butler, Adam, author; Van Cleave, Claire, author; Fortenberry, Diane, author; Stirling, Susan, author - The Art Book_ New Edition, Mini Format Used for: biography.
  3. [3] book guggenheim-guhe00solo Used for: biography.
  4. [4] book guggenheim-handboo00pegg Used for: biography.

Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-07-02. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.

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