Georges Braque

Georges Braque was born in 1882 in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, the commune just outside Paris that was made famous by the Impressionists. It was an auspicious birthplace, though the family soon moved to Le Havre. Nevertheless, Braque’s interest in art was encouraged from an early age: both his father and grandfather were amateur artists, and they owned a successful house-painting business. As a teenager, Braque studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre before moving to Paris at the turn of the century to train under a master decorator.

Perhaps owing to his upbringing in Normandy, Braque’s earliest output was heavily influenced by the Impressionists. In Paris, however, he embraced Fauvism, influenced by other avant-garde trends as well as the work of Paul Cezanne. Six of his paintings were included in the 1907 Salon des Indépendants and all sold. This was followed by a solo exhibition at Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler’s gallery the next year.

It was through Kahnweiler’s connections that Braque met Pablo Picasso, with whom he would go on to develop Cubism. Thrilled by a shared revolutionary ethos, the two reimagined visual aesthetics — and thus all of art. It was during these years that Braque executed Fruit Dish and Glass (1912) as well as Man with a Guitar (1911–12), which possess all the hallmarks of Analytical Cubism.

This collaboration lasted until the outset of World War I, during which Braque served in the French army. After returning home from the front, his idiom became looser, less regulated. Although Cubism remained integral to his paintings, Braque moved away from such austere abstraction.

By the 1920s, Braque had reached widespread acclaim and his work was shown internationally. In addition to his paintings, he also produced etchings, lithographs and drawings and designed the decor for two of Sergei Diaghilev’s ballets. He remained in Paris during World War II and continued to paint until his death in 1963.