We look down onto a pile with a newspaper, theater program, pipe, a black and white checkerboard, and other objects painted as abstracted, geometric forms on a tabletop in this nearly square still life painting. Near the center, a rectangular form like a newspaper is painted with the headline “LE JOURNAL.” Next to it, to our left, a playbill has the name “FANTOMAS” written in black against a parakeet-green background, above black mask and a “65” in a circle below. There are blocks of stylized, painted wood grain and other areas of color that do not line up with the objects represented. For instance, this conflicting pattern means that the lettering of the newspaper changes from white against the brown woodgrain to green against white. Moreover, seemingly unconnected to the objects, colors, and spaces below, yet more objects like a goblet and bowl of fruit are painted with white outlines that overlay the wood and objects below. A checkerboard pattern is layered under the woodgrain and papers, near the lower right corner, and another pattern like architectural molding carved with stylized leaves runs along the back, above the papers. The papers and a few other objects seem to cast shadows on the blocks of color behind them, so areas of lilac purple at the top left and burgundy red along the right edge read visually as a background behind everything. The artist signed the work in black on the lower left corner: “Juan Gris 8-1915.”

Fantômas

Juan Gris

We look down onto a pile with a newspaper, theater program, pipe, a black and white checkerboard, and other objects painted as abstracted, geometric forms on a tabletop in this nearly square still life painting. Near the center, a rectangular form like a newspaper is painted with the headline “LE JOURNAL.” Next to it, to our left, a playbill has the name “FANTOMAS” written in black against a parakeet-green background, above black mask and a “65” in a circle below. There are blocks of stylized, painted wood grain and other areas of color that do not line up with the objects represented. For instance, this conflicting pattern means that the lettering of the newspaper changes from white against the brown woodgrain to green against white. Moreover, seemingly unconnected to the objects, colors, and spaces below, yet more objects like a goblet and bowl of fruit are painted with white outlines that overlay the wood and objects below. A checkerboard pattern is layered under the woodgrain and papers, near the lower right corner, and another pattern like architectural molding carved with stylized leaves runs along the back, above the papers. The papers and a few other objects seem to cast shadows on the blocks of color behind them, so areas of lilac purple at the top left and burgundy red along the right edge read visually as a background behind everything. The artist signed the work in black on the lower left corner: “Juan Gris 8-1915.”

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Juan Gris
Date
1915
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 59.8 x 73.3 cm (23 9/16 x 28 7/8 in.) framed: 78.7 x 93.3 x 8.8 cm (31 x 36 3/4 x 3 7/16 in.)
Department
CMC
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Chester Dale Fund

Art Genome Taxonomy

9 tags

Subject Matter

  • Still Life Both · 99%

    The museum metadata identifies the work as a still life, and the image shows a tabletop arrangement of printed matter, a pipe, checkerboard, goblet, fruit, and other objects.

  • Text Both · 99%

    Printed and painted language is visible in the image, including “FANTOMAS,” “LE JOURNAL,” and “65,” and the museum description specifically identifies the newspaper and playbill text.

Styles and Movements

  • Cubism Visual · 99%

    The composition uses fractured planes, overlapping viewpoints, angular contours, and the simultaneous depiction of objects and their surrounding surfaces, all strongly characteristic of Cubist construction.

Visual Qualities

  • Fragmented Geometry Visual · 99%

    Recognizable objects and their contours are broken into intersecting angular planes rather than modeled as continuous naturalistic forms.

  • Patterns Both · 98%

    Painted wood grain, checkerboard squares, architectural molding, stripes, and printed marks form recurring patterned surfaces across the composition; these features are also identified in the museum description.

  • Dense Composition Visual · 97%

    The picture is densely occupied by overlapping papers, objects, shadows, geometric fragments, and linear marks, leaving relatively little open space.

  • Angular Visual · 97%

    Strongly angled black, brown, blue, green, yellow, white, lilac, and burgundy planes structure the image and give its objects a sharply geometric appearance.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 100%

    The museum records the medium as oil on canvas.

Time Periods

  • 1900 - 1917 Art Metadata · 100%

    The catalog dates the painting to 1915, within the catalog’s 1900–1917 period category.

Source & rights

Juan Gris. Fantômas. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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