Object Image

The Musician’s Table

In 1912, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso invented the cubist technique known as papier collé, a method of adhering paper elements to a composition to push their break with the tradition of painted representation. Gris occasionally made use of papier collé, at this time, but he was the first among the Cubists to exhibit such a composition (The Washstand, 1912, private collection) and was lauded for his "curious originality." In 1914, the months preceding the outbreak of war, Gris devoted himself almost exclusively to this hybrid medium, creating over forty compositions. This work includes a clever message: the newspaper that appears on the tabletop was made from two different editions; Gris’s i...
1914
Conté crayon, wax crayon, gouache, cut-and-pasted printed wallpaper, blue and white laid papers, transparentized paper, newspaper, and brown wrapping paper; selectively varnished on canvas
80.0 x 60.3cm
2018.216
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2020

Where you'll find this

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection