Braque

Georges Braque (13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a French painter and printmaker who, with Pablo Picasso, helped develop Cubism, a major movement in 20th-century art characterized by the fragmentation of form and a departure from traditional perspective. He is regarded as one of the leading figures in modern art and a key inventor of Cubist language.

Braque was born in Argenteuil, France, and moved to Paris in the early 1900s to pursue painting. His early work shows influence from Fauvism, but by 1908 he and Picasso were pursuing a common path that emphasized structure, geometry, and the reduction of form. An early landmark of Cubism in Braque’s work is Houses at Estaque (1908), which helped establish the approach of analyzing objects from multiple viewpoints.

From 1908 to 1914 Braque refined Analytical Cubism, using muted earth tones and dense, interlocking facets to reconstruct subjects such as still lifes and interiors. In 1912 he helped popularize collage through the technique of papier collé, incorporating pieces of wallpaper and other materials into paintings, a move that transitioned Cubism toward Synthetic Cubism. Throughout his career, Braque maintained a rigorous, disciplined approach to form and space, often returning to still lifes and landscapes.

Braque’s influence extended beyond Cubism to later 20th-century modernism. He worked across painting and printmaking, maintaining a distinctive, restrained palette and a focus on structural clarity. He died in Paris in 1963, leaving a lasting legacy as a central figure in the development of abstract art and modern painting.