Georges Braque was a painter living in France in the 20th century. He was the son of a decorative painter and had planned to become a decorative painter in the future as well. He went to school at École des Beaux-Arts to study artistic painting and later moved to France to further his painting education and career. In Braque’s early years of painting, he dabbled in a variety of styles such as impressionism and fauvism, gradually leaning more and more towards cubism. Eventually, Braque began incorporating cubism into many of his paintings, including landscapes and portraits, and was on the forefront of this stylistic movement along with Pablo Picasso. Exploring the aspects of cubism is what inspired Braque to venture into the worlds of analytic cubism and synthetic cubism.
One of Braque’s earliest works to incorporate cubism was his landscape painting entitled Houses at L’Estaque. The painting was created in the early twentieth century and depicts abstracted houses, trees, mountains and hills. The objects in the painting are made of geometric shapes to simplify forms, the use of lines, and a neutral color palette, all components of analytic cubism. Inspired by Picasso’s cubist works, Braque’s Houses at L’Estaque is a piece that was created within a series of landscapes in order to begin his exploration of the simplification of shapes in the natural world, also known as cubism.
Another subcategory of cubism is synthetic cubism, which is essentially collage. Collage can be defined as the use of different found materials to create a cohesive piece. Violin and Pipe is a well known collage by Braque. This collage consists of various materials cut out into various shapes and sizes layered on top of one another to create something that vaguely suggests a violin. Surrounding the cut-out found materials are marks of charcoal scribbled around the collage with a circle drawn around the whole piece. Surrounding the circle are more charcoal marks. In this piece, Braque takes parts of a violin, separates them among the different materials, rearranges them and is left with an abstracted violin.
Georges Braque is remembered for leading the cubist movement in the twentieth century, along with Picasso, with their cubist paintings and collages. Their developed cubist style paved the way for new styles soon to come such as futurism and many more.
Sources:
“Georges Braque Biography.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2016
“Cubism Movement, Artists and Major Works.” The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
“Georges Braque Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
“Most Popular Paintings.” Vioilin and Pipe, 1913, by Georges Braque. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.