GEORGES BRAQUE, Le Plat de Fruits, 1941

In this 1941 work, colour becomes a subject matter unto itself, a move which puts Braque’s painting in keeping with the works of Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne; their intention was to ‘make art through colour’.

The painting contains several features characteristic of Modern Art; in particular, we will note the glaring gap between how colour looks in reality and how it functions on the canvas. Moreover, Braque’s use of block colours in the background accentuates both the flatness of this painting’s layout and its frontal nature. Meanwhile, the effect of perspective diminishes. The blacks, and greys of varying darkness, contrast with warmer colours such as mauve, yellow, light green and brown. In this way, we start to bear witness to an empowerment being afforded to colour; it is no longer mimetic here, freed from the constraints of realism. It is worth noting that Georges Braque – before his Cubist era – was a key f igure in Fauvism, contributing to this heightened importance of colour throughout his body of work.

Admittedly, Braque does not do away with reality completely here, but he is also not afraid to experiment with the expressive capacity that painting can have as a medium. The intensification of colour in this work attests to that, as does the simplified sketching. For example, the fruit is drawn using spirals, whilst the dish – it could as well be a fruit bowl – is brushed with a few, noticeable grey, black and white lines. The artist’s strokes remain significant on the canvas, giving it a physical, textural quality.

The black form on the left-hand side could be a flower pot or a sculpture – the viewer cannot be totally sure. In the background, geometric decorations not unlike those by Henri Matisse create a sense of stability and balance within the painting.

In the foreground, the objects and the table on which they sit are seen from above, whilst the rest of the elements are seen from the front. These two, contrasting perspectives – shown simultaneously – cannot help but remind us, albeit subtly, of Braque’s Cubist background.

The spirals creating the fruit and the curved lines within both the dish and the table create a gentle harmony on the canvas. These shapes, both to-the-point and delicate, leave no trace of the act of drawing that went into them. Through its coloured surfaces, Le plat de fruits fully reintegrates the role – and emotive power – of colour.

Georges Braque’s Post Cubist Masterpieces, Anthem Edition, 2024.