BRAQUE Georges

Georges Braque was born in Argenteuil on the 13th of May 1882. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1897 to 1899 under Charles Lhuillier and received his first training as a decorative painter. He met Marie Laurencin and Francis Picabia in Paris in 1904. He painted his first works under the influences of impressionism and fauvism. His graphic work begins in 1907-1908 with cubist engravings (Ed. Maeght). Then in 1907 he met Pablo Picasso who painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. It is for him a revelation. In accordance with these two influences and his interest in primitive art, his pictorial orientation was completely overturned. From 1909 to 1912, Braque and Picasso developed the theories of Cubism. The artist no longer sought to copy nature but to break it down into masses in order to recompose it. At the same time, Georges Braque continued to paint landscapes influenced by Cézanne, landscapes that he eventually abandoned for still lifes, for which he was very successful. The First World War interrupted his close collaboration with Picasso.

In 1914, Georges Braque was mobilized. He made a sort of “return to order” by painting less angular and more colorful forms. Georges Braque died in Paris on 31 August 1963 leaving behind him numerous paintings, sculptures, etchings and lithographs.