Still Life with Checked Tablecloth

Juan Gris

Paris, spring 1915 · Oil and graphite on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

Gris, a master of disguised images, presents a table brimming with coffee cups, stemmed wineglasses, a large white-footed fruit compote (seen from the side and from above) containing thickly painted grapes, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of Bass extra stout ale with its distinctive red diamond logo, a newspaper, and a guitar. Yet this painting has another equally compelling identity: a bull’s head. The coffee cup at lower center doubles as the animal’s snout, a black-and-white concentric circle at left is a “bull’s eye,” the bottle of ale is an ear, and the sinuous edge of the guitar is a horn. The letters “EAU” on the wine label, which ostensibly stand for “bEAUjolais” can just as easily represent “taurEAU” (bull).

Artist

Juan Gris

Date

Paris, spring 1915

Medium

Oil and graphite on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Purchase, Leonard A. Lauder Gift, 2014