Glass, Cup and Newspaper

This colourful still life painting was titled Glass, Cup and Newspaper and appeared in the career of Spanish cubist painter, Juan Gris.

The artist carefully crafted the wooden style in the top of the painting, though would sometimes used prints of this look in order to achieve it without so much effort. The glass and cup are in matching tones of green, whilst the bowls and saucers are in a strong blue. There are then touches of reds and pinks to the supporting elements of the background, and perhaps more detail than he normally put into these less important parts of the composition. They use gradiented lines that swirl in the same way as his direct wooden look. There is then the newspaper underneath this all, with just a sneaky look at it available here.

You will find this array of objects appearing frequently throughout the artist's career, with still life his main focus over many years. This genre dominated the entire Cubist movement and you will also find some exquisite pieces from other artists in this same category, such as Violin and Newspaper and Violin and Candlestick by Georges Braque as well as Ma Jolie and Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler by Pablo Picasso. Kahnweiler himself was actually Gris' main dealer and also became a close friend of the artist, leaving behind a number of insightful quotes about Gris through his written correspondence with others.

The newspaper which only appears in a small part of the scene is likely to have been a copy of Le Journal, from the same year as the painting which was 1913. Research suggests that this artwork is most likely to be a part of a private collection and this would explain why there is relatively little information available on it online. There may be more documentation about it in French or Spanish that has not been translated into English as yet. Most famous artists whose reputations can be considered to spread internationally have been studied in depth, artwork by artwork, but the same cannot entirely be said for Juan Gris, who has always been slightly in the shadow of Picasso and Braque.