Juan Gris

Galerie Simon, Paris
Dr. Gottlieb F. Reber, Lausanne (acquired from the above in 1925)
Irmgart Fritsch, Lausanne
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Private Collection, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1987

Hamburg, Kunstverein, 1930, n.n.
Dortmund, Museum am Ostwall, Juan Gris, 1965, no. 85, illustrated in the catalogue
Cologne, Wallraf-Rchartz Museum, Juan Gris, 1966, no. 85, illustrated in the catalogue
Sète, Musée Paul Valery, Juan Gris: Rimes de la forme et de la couleur, 2011, n.n.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Juan Gris: His Life and Work, London & New York, 1947, illustrated pl. 88
Douglas Cooper, Letters of Juan Gris, 1913-1927, London, 1956, no. CCX
Douglas Cooper, Juan Gris: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, vol. II, Paris, 1977, no. 525, illustrated p. 349
Kosinski, Dorothy, “G.F. Reber: Collector of Cubism" in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 133, 1991, no. 1061, illustrated p. 530 (as Woman with Book)
Uwe Fleckner, Katalog der “Zweiten” Samlung Reber, in Die Moderne und ihre Sammler: Französische Kunst in deutschem Privatbesitz vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik, 2001, illustrated p. 398
Douglas Cooper, Juan Gris, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint (second edition), vol. II, Paris, 2014, no. 525, illustrated in color p. 786

The canvas has been relined. There is stable craquelure to the lower right and lower left foreground. There is frame abrasion around the periphery. When examined under UV light, there are two spots of retouching to the center of the right edge and a further spot in the lower right corner. An uneven varnish prevents further reading. There is surface dirt and the work would benefit from a light clean. The painting is in overall good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Femme au livre is an elegant example of Juan Gris' mature Cubist works, which Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler called “the crowning achievements of his oeuvre” (L'Atelier de Juan Gris (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, 1957). Painted in the final years before Gris’ premature death, this harmonious composition contains the vital elements of his later aesthetic, as Norman Rosenthal stated in his discussion of the artist's works from this period: “In a painting by him we find an intensely satisfying, hermetic relationship of pictorial elements, one balanced by the next and then another until the subtlety of resonance reaches an exquisite pitch” (Norman Rosenthal, Juan Gris, New York, 1983, p. 3).

Gris cultivated a great deal of highly influential relationships during his career in Paris, including with the writer Gertrude Stein, who avidly collected his art and described Gris as “a perfect painter.” In her idiosyncratic style she summed up the artist's final achievements: “Four years partly illness much perfection and rejoining beauty and perfection and then at the end there came a definite creation of something. This is what is to be measured” (quoted in “The Life of Juan Gris, The Life and Death of Juan Gris” in Transition, no. 4, Paris, July 1927, pp. 160-62). Indeed, Gris himself felt that his art of the 1920s was moving toward a balance of imagery and ideas, writing, “Today, at the age of forty, I believe I am approaching a new period of self-expression, of pictorial expression, of picture-language; a well-thought-out and well-blended unity. In short, the synthetic period has followed the analytical one” (quoted in Maurice Raynal, Anthology of Painting in France, From 1906 to the Present Day, Paris, 1927, p. 172).

Femme au livre presents a soft yet rich palette of blues that contrast with the checked tablecloth and reddish-brown hues. As Paloma Esteban Leal discusses the brilliance of Gris' late palette, “As well as a more coherent composition and stronger and clearer fracturing, the paintings that he produced from March 1925 until the end of 1926 reveal a greater formal purity and, more importantly, a use of colour that confirms Gris's indisputable status as a master colourist” (quoted in Juan Gris: Drawings and Paintings 1910-1927 (exhibition catalogue), Museo Naçional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2005, p. 60).