Georges Braque

French, 1882 - 1963

Georges Braque was known for developing cubism alongside Pablo Picasso and for participating in the fauvist movement. The French painter is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

Braque spent much of his professional life in Paris. He met Picasso in 1907, and by 1909, the two had begun to develop the principles of cubism. Believing that art did not have to mirror reality, they abandoned perspective to emphasize the flatness of the canvas.

Braque’s early cubist works break objects into splintered, almost unrecognizable shapes, like the ones in Harbor (1909). Later, Braque and Picasso established a more colorful, less fragmented visual language, as seen in Braque’s 1929 Still Life: Le Jour. Braque died in 1963, leaving a lasting mark on art history.

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Georges Braque, The Garden Table, 1952, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.5

The Garden Table

Georges Braque · 1952 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.5

Georges Braque, Fruit, Glass, and Mandolin, 1938, oil and sand on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.4

Fruit, Glass, and Mandolin

Georges Braque · 1938 · oil and sand on canvas ·  Accession ID  1995.47.4

A wood table is piled with stylized and abstracted objects, including a jug, lemons, a knife, guitar, newspaper, and a smoking pipe in this horizontal still life painting. The objects are made up of areas of mostly flat color and many are outlined in black, creating the impression that some shapes are two-dimensional and assembled almost like a collage. We look down onto the top of the table and at the front, where the grain of the wood is painted in tan against a lighter background. Concentric black and white circles make up the knob on the face of the table’s single drawer. There are two rows of objects on the table. Along the front, near the left corner of the table, the knife hangs with its blade slightly over the open drawer. A newspaper with the title “LE JOUR” rests next to the knife. Next to the newspaper are two yellow pieces of fruit, near the front right corner of the table. Behind the fruit, the right third of the pitcher is marine blue and the left two thirds is mostly straw yellow, with one round olive-green area near the handle. Next to the pitcher is a tobacco pipe, and, at the back left edge of the table, the guitar. The instrument rests on its side so the front of the soundboard faces the viewer, and the neck extends to our left. The instrument is bisected lengthwise into two halves that appear to be spliced together, and the edges and features of the halves are not symmetrical or aligned with each other. The bottom half of the guitar is painted a beige color, and is curved like a typical guitar body. The top half is painted black, and the contour of the instrument’s body rises into two pointed peaks instead of mirroring the rounded forms below. The sound hole is markedly smaller on the bottom half, and the two halves of the hole do not exactly line up. A rectangular form behind the table could be a screen. The left side is fern green, the right side black. Behind the screen is a wallpapered wall above wood paneling. The wallpaper is patterned with teardrop shapes, dots, and zigzagging lines in fawn brown against parchment white. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “G Braque 29.”
Georges Braque, Still Life: Le Jour, 1929, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.91

Still Life: Le Jour

Georges Braque · 1929 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.91

A jumble of abstracted objects, including a stringed instrument, tableware, and fruit, are gathered on a tabletop in this horizontal still life painting. The objects are made up of areas of mostly flat color in muted fawn brown, cream, bright white, fern green, slate gray, and black. Many forms are outlined in black, creating the impression that the some shapes are two-dimensional and assembled almost like a collage. To our left, a musical instrument, perhaps a lute, sits next to appears to be lined paper, perhaps abstracted sheet music, at the center of the composition. In front of the paper, two pieces of pale yellow fruit sit on a silver plate. A rolled up white napkin sits next to the plate in front of an urn and a jug. A steel-gray goblet sits to the left of the plate. The background behind the table is painted with zones of moss green, sky blue, and gray. The edges appear torn, as if the painting is done on a loose canvas or sheet of paper that was then affixed to a support. The surface of the painting is rough and appears scratched throughout, and looks as if paint had been applied when nearly dry. The artist signed and dated the painting in white near the lower left corner: “G Braque 28.”
Georges Braque, Still Life: The Table, 1928, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.92

Still Life: The Table

Georges Braque · 1928 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.92

Georges Braque, Peonies, 1926, oil on wood, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.90

Peonies

Georges Braque · 1926 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1963.10.90

Georges Braque, Nude Woman with Fruit, 1925, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.89

Nude Woman with Fruit

Georges Braque · 1925 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.89

A patchwork of earth-toned rectangles, cubes, and prism-like shapes surrounded by pools of cool aquamarine and silvery gray fill this square, nearly abstract painting. Brushstrokes, which are mostly horizontal, and dashes are visible throughout. A curving, pointed form at the lower center could be a boat with a tall, fawn-brown mast. It is surrounded by forms suggestive of rocks, other boats, or structures against a watery horizon. Most of the shapes around the boat are leather brown, tan, apricot orange, muted violet, or steel gray. Another pole, also suggestive of a mast, angles up from near the lower left corner, about a third of the way into the composition. Many of the shapes are outlined with charcoal-gray lines. Horizontal and blended strokes in pewter gray and icy blue at the upper corners suggest the sky.
Georges Braque, Harbor, 1909, oil on canvas, Gift of Victoria Nebeker Coberly in memory of her son, John W. Mudd, 1992.3.1

Harbor

Georges Braque · 1909 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1992.3.1

We look across a sandy colored beach or walkway that stretches away from us to our right and then turns ninety degrees to our left in the distance, to enclose a teal-green body of water filled with rows of small rowboats in this nearly square, stylized landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with vibrant colors, in jewel-toned topaz and royal blue, emerald and mint green, pale orchid purple, golden yellow, cream white, and crimson red. The boats grouped along the beach close to us are lined up in a row along the beach to our right, punctuated by a few vertical masts. The beach across from us in the distance is lined with a cotton candy-pink, pale lavender-purple, sage-green, and pumpkin-orange warehouses in front of a line of cobalt-blue mountains along the horizon, which comes nearly to the top edge of the canvas. The sky is pastel purple, green, yellow, and peach above. The artist signed the work in dark paint in the lower right corner: “Braque.”
Georges Braque, The Port of La Ciotat, 1907, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.6

The Port of La Ciotat

Georges Braque · 1907 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1998.74.6

Georges Braque, Si je mourais là-bas (If I Died Over There), Page 17, 1962, woodcut in black on wove paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1980.45.214

Si je mourais là-bas (If I Died Over There), Page 17

Georges Braque · 1962 · woodcut in black on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1980.45.214

Georges Braque, Fondation Maeght, Oiseau de passage (Bird of Passage), 1962, embossed color etching and aquatint, Rosenwald Collection, 1964.8.386

Oiseau de passage (Bird of Passage)

Georges Braque, Fondation Maeght · 1962 · embossed color etching and aquatint ·  Accession ID  1964.8.386