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This drawing is a study for a detail of Man in the Café, a large painting in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The dislocation and fragmentation of the face into geometric planes are typical of Gris’s Cubism, which differs from that of Braque and Picasso through its greater emphasis on structure. The cerebral method is relieved here by comical overtones reminiscent of the caricatures Gris used to draw for a living earlier in his career.
Juan Gris
Spanish; 1887–1927
Man with Opera Hat, 1912
Black fabricated chalk on laid paper
2017.111