Braque's Synthetic Period:
Braque's works from the period 1917-20 are derived compositionally from synthetic cubism, the second phase of cubism, which began about 1914. Much flatter and more variegated in color, they include brightly dotted decorative passages. Around 1930-31, Braque moved to the coast of Normandy in France. As a result, he changed the subjects of his paintings; bathers, beach scenes, and seascapes were now his favorite themes. Stylistically, he became increasingly interested in ornamentation and patterned surfaces. During the late 1930s and early '40s, Braque was drawn to melancholy themes. From 1945, birds were a dominant subject. Braque's canvases done during the 1950s show a return to the brilliant colors of the Fauve period, as in the Louvre ceiling (1952-53) and the decoration for the villa at Saint Paul-de-Vence (1954). Active until the end of his life, Braque produced an oeuvre that includes sculpture, graphics, book illustration, and decorative art.


Braque's "Bottle and Fishes"

Georges Braque was the only artist ever to collaborate with Picasso as an equal. He admitted that they were "like climbers roped together, each pulling the other up". From 1907 they worked so closely together, exploring the planes and facets of the same subject matter, that some of their work appears almost identical. Although they developed their own natural autonomy as artists, they carried Cubism to another level that was brighter and more legible.

By 1929 however their innate differences were quite clear, for the two had long since parted ways. They had parted in 1914, for at the outbreak of WWI Braque entered the army as an infantry sergeant and served with distinction, being decorated twice in 1914 for bravery. In 1915 he suffered a serious head wound, which was followed by a trepanation, several months in the hospital, and a long period of convalescence at home at Sorgues. During this period he added to the sayings he had been in the habit of scribbling on the margins of drawings, and in 1917 he published a collection of these sayings called "Thoughts and Reflections on Painting."



New means, new subjects. . . . The aim is not to
reconstitute an anecdotal fact, but to constitute a
pictorial fact. . . . To work from nature is to
improvise. . . . The senses deform, the mind forms.
. . . I love the rule that corrects emotion.


Released from further military service, the artist rejoined the Cubist movement, which by then was in its synthetic phase. In 1917-18 he painted, partly under the influence of his friend Juan Gris, the geometric, strongly coloured, nearly abstract "Woman Musician" and some still lifes in a similar manner. Rapidly he moved away from geometry toward forms softened by looser drawing and freer brushwork. An example of the change is the 1919 "Still Life with Playing Cards." From this point onward his style ceased to evolve in the methodical way it had during the successive phases of Cubism; it became a series of personal variations on the stylistic heritage of the eventful years before WWI.