Flowers

Flowers is a complex piece from 1914, currently under the ownership of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, US. It is one of Juan Gris' most impressive cubist paintings.

This painting combines multiple perspectives, with a top down view of the table, whilst the objects placed upon it are from more of an angle. To see the two together is confusing at first, but completely standard within the cubist movement - the likes of Braque and Picasso would do exactly the same in their own work. One element of uniqueness in this painting would be the element on which the painting is named - namely the carefully crafted flowers (orchids) found a the top of the composition. These are considered to be in the style of Art Nouveau, a movement that Alphonse Mucha was famously involved and also architect Antoni Gaudi would contribute to a Catalan offshoot, named Modernismo.

The remaining elements in this scene include a vanity table, mirror, a vase containing a number of roses and also a pair of coffee cups. Perhaps this is the setting for a romantic breakfast or lunch for a young couple.

Additional information that we were able to glean from the Met's website is that the newspaper fragment is actually from a copy of Le Matin from May 15, 1914. There are also elements of wallpaper from Leroy 14020 and Leroy 17213 (Isidore Leroy). Most of this artist's work does not have such detailed information available on it, but the Met have a huge amount of resources and an abundance of willingness to research its own artworks in order to educate us about them as well as they possibly can. They also have a detailed account of its ownership which has changed hands on a number of occasions before arriving at its current destination. Flowers has also been loaned out on multiple occasions right across the world, most frequently in Europe and other parts of North America. It has most recently featured in a number of Met exhibitions focused on the Cubist art movement.