Port de lestaque georges braque biography

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French painter and sculptor (1882–1963)

Georges Braque (BRA(H)K; French:[ʒɔʁʒbʁak]; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he played in the development of Cubism. Braque's work between 1908 and 1912 is closely associated with that of his colleague Pablo Picasso. Their respective Cubist works were indistinguishable for many years, yet the quiet nature of Braque was partially eclipsed by the fame and notoriety of Picasso.

Early life

Georges Braque was born on 13 May 1882 in Argenteuil, Val-d'Oise. He grew up in Le Havre and trained to be a house painter and decorator like his father and grandfather. However, he also studied artistic painting during evenings at the École supérieure d'art et design Le Havre-Rouen, previously known as the École supérieure des Arts in Le Havre, from about 1897 to 1899. In Paris, he apprenticed with a decorator and was awarded his certificate in 1902. The next year, he attended the Académie Humbert, also in Paris, and painted there until 1904. It was here that he met Marie Laurencin and Francis Picabia.

Fauvism

Braque's earliest works were impressionistic, but after seeing the work exhibited by the artistic group known as the "Fauves" (Beasts) in 1905, he adopted a Fauvist style. The Fauves, a group that included Henri Mati

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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): G Braque 06

[Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris, until 1939; stock no. 4156; sold on September 1, 1939 to Curran]; Elizabeth Curran, later Mrs. Josef Solterer, Dublin (1939–60; the painting left with her father, C. P. Curran, Dublin, upon move with her husband to Falls Church, Virginia, in 1955; sale, Sotheby's, London, July 6, 1960, no. 164, for £10,000 to Contemporary Art Foundation); Contemporary Art Foundation (from 1960); Mrs. Ira (Enid A.) Haupt, New York (by 1964–83; sold on December 20, 1983 to Annenberg); her brother and his wife, Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, Rancho Mirage, California (1983–his d. 2002; his bequest to MMA)

Dublin. National Gallery of Ireland. "Loan Exhibition of Modern Continental Paintings," August 1944, no. 12 (as "L'Estaque," lent by C. P. Curran, Esq.).

Edinburgh. Royal Scottish Academy. "G. Braque: An Exhibition of Paintings," August 18–September 15, 1956, no. 7 (as "Boats on the Beach at L'Estaque," lent by Mr. C. P. Curran, Dublin).

London. Tate Gallery. "G. Braque: An Exhibition of Paintings," September 28–November 11, 1956, no. 7.

New York. Saidenberg Gallery. "Georges Braque, 1882–1963: An American Tribute. Fauvism and Cubism," April 7–May 2, 1964, no. 5 (as "Boats on Beach at L'Estaque," lent by a private collection, New York).

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," May 21–September 17,

The artist's most important contributions to the history of art were through his major roles in the developments of the styles of Fauvism (1904-07), along with Henri Matisse, and later of Cubism, after the death of Paul Cézanne, and having met Pablo Picasso and studied the latter's radical new work, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. This picture now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art, The Pompidou Centre, in Paris, France.

From 1906-1910, Braque made several trips to L'Estaque, a small port in the South of France, just south and west of the cities of Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, respectively. This painting depicts a charming Arcadian landscape with the symmetrical viaduct providing the background, and rolling hills and rural houses the foreground.

Along with Houses at L'Estaque, created in the same year, Braque jettisons the brilliant, non-naturalistic colours of Fauvism and now focusses on structural issues that had so preoccupied Cézanne and now consumed Picasso. The forms of the buildings are totally simplified and the correct illusion of depth is virtually ignored. The trees defy true perspective and force forward even the most distant house. The canvas is not a window but merely a flat surface in front of us.

The picture plane has been fractured in order to offer several viewpoints. The work has become a fundamental analysis of Braque's vision and of its representation, almost rejecting aesthetic concerns entirely. "The hard-and-fast rules of perspective...were a ghastly mistake which...has taken four centuries to redress", he remarked in 1957. Indeed, one tree is so artificial that it appears to be actually part of the viaduct, and a mysterious light brown post is suspended in the background.

Braque has also been quoted as saying, "Reality only reveals itself when it is illuminated by a ray of poetry." Like Cézanne, who had painted in this area before him, he reduces the s