Portrait of a Man with a Newspaper (Chevalier X)

Chevalier X was the name that the poet Guillaume Apollinaire invented for Derain’s anonymous model. In this painting we can detect a synthesis of diverse elements that influenced Derain’s oeuvre: there is African art, classic formal portraits, late mediaeval miniatures and the paintings of the artist’s own contemporaries (especially Paul Cézanne’s portrait known as The Artist’s Father Reading His Newspaper).
The juxtaposition of large planes and surfaces with the small-scale pattern on the floor and the rippling newsprint text produces a decorative effect. Originally the newspaper was a real one, pasted straight onto the canvas in a manner reminiscent of Picasso and Braque’s experiments with collage.