Landscape with Houses at Ceret

Dominated by primary colors mixed with green and purple, the composition of Landscape with Houses at Ceret is broken into geometric forms. Moving away from the pronounced vertical emphasis of his previous works, Gris introduced here intersecting diagonal lines, subverting the sense of depth and perspective, and underlining the flatness of the painting's surface. The sharp angles and pronounced square and triangular forms are counter-balanced by the irregular shapes of the row of trees in the foreground, echoed by what appears like their shadow in the upper part of the composition. This work represents a rare example of a pure landscape in Gris's work, as well as an important milestone in the development of synthetic Cubism.