Cubism & Early Abstraction · 1912

Portrait of Pablo Picasso

Juan Gris 1887–1927

Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1912) by Juan Gris. Its palette is led by oatmeal (#b0aca4, 27%) and bone (#cdc4b7, 26%), with accents of iron. Overall the canvas is light, muted and balanced between warm and cool.

Color reading

Brown and gray cover more than four-fifths of the canvas. Even its most colorful tone, pigeon grey #7D96A6, stays close to gray.

Palette

• #b0aca4 MG 172 oatmeal 27.3% of canvas
• #cdc4b7 MG 171 bone 26.2% of canvas
• #737a7b MG 215 grey 21.5% of canvas
• #7d96a6 MG 208 pigeon grey 19.0% of canvas
• #484b4d MG 217 iron 5.9% of canvas

Color families

Brown 43%, Gray 41%, Blue 9%, White 7%, Green 0%

Measurements

Lightness

0.69

Contrast

0.38

Vividness

0.024

Warmth

+0.12

Complexity

223 cells

Hue range

0.51

Focus

0.00

Composition

51% of the visual weight is in the left half, 51% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.31 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 10% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 34% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date

1912

Medium

Oil on canvas

Size

93.3 × 74.4 cm

Genre

portrait

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

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More by Juan Gris

• The Bottle of Anís del Mono, 1914
• Le Canigou, 1921