The artwork entitled “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother” was created by Juan Gris in 1912. This oil on canvas work measures 55 by 46 centimeters and is an exemplar of Analytical Cubism. The genre of the artwork is a portrait, and it is held in a private collection. As its title suggests, the artwork depicts the artist’s mother, although it does so through the lens of Cubist abstraction.
In this artwork, Gris deconstructs and reassembles the conventional representation of a portrait using a palette primarily consisting of muted, earthen tones. The subject’s visage and figure are fragmented into geometric planes and shapes, rendering the form into an interplay of light and shadow that suggests depth and volume. Despite the abstraction, there remains a hint of the maternal in the composed shapes, evoking the presence and essence of the artist’s mother without relying on literal depiction. The artwork displays the typical characteristics of Analytical Cubism, a movement that broke down and analyzed forms through abstracted geometric representation.
