Georges Braque
Biography
Georges Braque was born in Argenteuil, France on May 13, 1882. In 1890 his family moved to Normandy and settled in La Havre. From 1897 and onwards he attended evening classes at the local Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and the following year he left school and was apprenticed to a house painter with the idea that he should eventually take over the family business. He left for Paris to study under a master decorator to receive his craftsman certificate in 1901 (Guggenheim, [n.d.].). His apprenticeship was completed in Paris under another house-painter, a friend and former employee of his father, and while he was doing this he also continues to study drawing and painting at evening classes.
In
1902, his parents agreed to support him in the field of art, therefore, Braque
enrolled at the Académie
Humbert. Then, in 1904, Braque decided that he had enough of
academic theory so he set up his own studio. By 1906 Braque’s style of work was
altered, it was no longer Impressionist but Fauvism. His Fauve work has been
displayed the following year in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. In 1907 he met Matisse, the leader of Fauvism
style and his style became fully Fauvist. After that he had a chance to sign a
contract with the dealer Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, who introduced him to the
poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire. Apollinaire took Braque to Picasso’s
studio. In 1908, he was producing his earliest Cubist canvas, the L’Estaque
landscapes, heavily influenced by Cezanne (ART GALLERY NSW, [n.d].). That is
when the cubism style emerged; he ignored forms and reduces every detail to
geometrical patterns and cubes. By 1909 Picasso and Braque became in an
intimate friendship and they continue to work on the Cubism style together. In
1911, numbers and letters began to appear in his pieces. In 1915, Braque was
severely wounded in the head and after his recovery he had a chance to joining
many exhibition and showing his works which his pieces are very attracting the
attention of the fashionable art world. Again in 1945-1947 he was interrupted
by two serious illnesses however he had a good recovery so in 1948 he exhibited
his work at the Venice Biennale and he was awarded first prize for painting.
His creativity never ceases, Braque then diverted into making colour
lithographs. His use of technique of simplicity and directness of the paper
cutout is from Matisse. He also painted a piece that is a recollection of Van
Gogh last painting, The Cornfield which this seems that he had return to his
original style of Fauvism. Then he died in 1963. (Britt, D., 1999)