José Victoriano González-Pérez, better known as Juan Gris (Madrid, March 23, 1887-Boulogne-sur-Seine, May 11, 1927), was a Spanish painter and illustrator who developed his activity mainly in Paris.
He was born in Madrid in 1887, into a well-situated family, which allowed him to gradually enter a middle-class environment.
Between 1904 and 1906 he studied at the School of Arts and Manufactures in Madrid and in the studio of José Moreno Carbonero.
In 1906, to avoid the military and get to know an artistic life, he moved to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and Georges Braque.
In his early Parisian years he subsists drawing for publications such as L'Assiette au Beurre, Le Cri de Paris, Le Témoin and Charivari.
His first attempts as a painter in cubism were in the year 1910, when he gradually left illustration work, although there are few examples of this phase in Spanish museums.
In 1912 Juan Gris clearly made the leap to cubism with several paintings presented at the Salon des Indépendents in Paris.
After a few years of close connection, Juan Gris and Picasso grew apart both artistically and personally.
In his later years, Juan Gris designed sets for two Diaghilev ballet productions.