Nature morte

“I like a rule which regulates emotion. I like an emotion which offsets the rule” (G. Braque, 'Pensées et réflexions sur la peinture' in Nord-Sud, December 1917.)

The present work is notable for Braque’s exploration of a specific juxtaposition, that of real and simulated surface. Employing the dry and textured surface of gouache, at times both thickly applied and washed over the prepared panel, combining pattern and graphite line, Braque produces a subtly layered paint layer, whilst at the same employing shading devices to project forms in a trompe l'œil manner. This interest in depicting replica surfaces recalls Braque’s intrepid exploration into synthetic cubism, an interest which stretched back to his childhood experiences of working with his father, a house painter who specialized in the creation of decorative surface patterns.

Nature morte shows areas of the black ground that Braque favoured using in his still-lifes from 1918 into the late 1920s. The still-life elements have been rendered as flattened shapes that act as simple “signs” for the objects they represent, as in cubist practice. Braque has created spatial depth by contrasting the broad white forms of the grapes and guitar against darker forms that lie behind them. The artist often employed elongated horizontal formats during this period, allowing him to disperse the focal points in his still-life compositions, resulting in a sense of casual intimacy and relaxed pliancy not previously encountered in his art. Isabelle Monod-Fontaine has written, “nobody else succeeded as he did in transforming a table covered with objects into a mental space, a cerebral as well as a visual stimulus” (in exh. cat., op. cit., 2003, p. 19).

Characteristically for a painting of the early 1920s, Braque seeks here to distance himself from the formality of his earlier cubist works, and to strive for a more lyrical appeal as denoted by the numerous decorative elements - incisions, careful shading and the interplay of transparent and opaque silhouettes. The evolution in Braque’s art at this time would ensure that his personality as an artist became more distinct. A year before the present painting was completed Braque had been given his second one man show at the Léonce Rosenberg Gallery in Paris; it was the overwhelmingly positive critical reaction to this exhibition which is considered the point when Braque stepped out of the shadows to assume his place as one of the leading personalities in France’s modern art scene.