Seated Harlequin 1923

In 1923, Juan Gris painted this 'Seated Harlequin', probably in oil on canvas, though I can't be sure, and now it's in a private collection. Look at those shapes—how Gris simplifies forms into geometric blocks, playing with purple, yellow, and grey, like he’s building up his own world, one colour and shape at a time. He's clearly in conversation with Picasso and Braque, taking Cubism and making it his own. I can almost see him, in his studio, turning the canvas, trying different angles, questioning everything. The figure almost merges with the space around it. Harlequin, in that pose, seems to invite us to question: what is real, and what is just an arrangement of shapes and colours? It's as if Gris is pulling apart reality and putting it back together in a new way. Like all great painting, it's a conversation, an argument even, with the past.