Georges Braque

Georges Braque (1882-1963) was a French painter and sculptor who co-invented Cubism with Pablo Picasso between 1908 and 1914. Born in Argenteuil, he trained as a house painter (like his father) before studying fine art in Paris. After a brief Fauvist period, his 1908 landscapes of L'Estaque, with their simplified geometric forms, prompted the critic Louis Vauxcelles to coin the term "Cubism."

Braque and Picasso worked so closely during the Cubist years that their paintings are sometimes hard to tell apart. Braque introduced collage into fine art (papier collé) and pioneered the use of stenciled letters, sand, and other materials on canvas. After World War I (where he was seriously wounded), his work grew quieter and more lyrical. Our collection includes works at leading museums.