Cubist Still Life

By 1915 the war had emptied Paris of the painters Gris knew. Braque and Leger were at the front, and the German dealer who had paid him a monthly wage was stranded in exile in Switzerland, his income gone almost overnight. As a Spaniard, Gris was not called up, and he could not go home to Madrid either, so he stayed on in a nearly deserted Montmartre, painting through real poverty while his wife Josette kept house on very little. What is striking is that a picture like this shows none of that hardship. The still life is bright and flat, its planes clean-edged and confidently coloured, the fruit and tabletop locked into a firm geometric order. That spring a new dealer, Leonce Rosenberg, began buying his canvases, which was reason enough to keep working.