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.