Bottles and Knife

In 1912 Juan Gris stepped out from Picasso's shadow. That spring he showed a large tribute to Picasso at the Salon des Independants in Paris, the first time the public really saw him as a painter of his own, and later the same year he signed with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, the German dealer who already handled Picasso and Braque. This still life comes from exactly that moment. A few plain things on a table, a couple of bottles and a knife, taken apart into tilted grey and brown planes and put back together so you read them from several sides at once. The palette is deliberately quiet, closer to the muted greys of early Cubism than to the brighter colour he would soon allow himself. Look for the knife laid flat along the front edge of the table, one straight line holding the shifting facets in place.