1914, Juan Gris, The Man at the Cafe -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Gris began making collages in 1914; this work, which uses both oil paint and pasted papers, is his largest from that year. It presents a man at a table with a stein of beer and the newspaper Le Matin. His face is hidden but the newspaper clearly reads "The Bertillon Method / One will no longer be able to make fake works of art." Alphonse Bertillon was a famed French criminal investigator who championed meticulous record-keeping in forensic investigation. The article posits that artists should register their fingerprints, which could then be compared to those found on any canvas to prevent forgeries. The presence of this shadowy figure, whose own fingers are colored a spectral blue, suggests otherwise.
1914, Juan Gris, The Man at the Cafe -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Gris began making collages in 1914; this work, which uses both oil paint and pasted papers, is his largest from that year. It presents a man at a table with a stein of beer and the newspaper Le Matin. His face is hidden but the newspaper clearly reads "The Bertillon Method / One will no longer be able to make fake works of art." Alphonse Bertillon was a famed French criminal investigator who championed meticulous record-keeping in forensic investigation. The article posits that artists should register their fingerprints, which could then be compared to those found on any canvas to prevent forgeries. The presence of this shadowy figure, whose own fingers are colored a spectral blue, suggests otherwise.