GEORGES BRAQUE, Pomme et Banane, 1926

This is a small-scale work, but an artistically lovely and intimate one. It is, as is very apparent, part of the classic still life genre. The canvas offers us two pieces of fruit (an apple and a banana) sitting on a pearly white cloth, with a decorated wall behind, which serves to close off any background depth and so draw our attention to the subjects in the foreground. However, let’s not forget that what we are dealing with here is a Georges Braque painting, rather than a depiction of pieces of fruit.

The process involved in creating the work remains clearly discernible within it: the colours, texture and strokes all reveal the artist’s steady hand. Formally, we can term the fruit, cloth and wall simplified in their sketching; Braque has done this intentionally, with the aim being to paint, not to offer the mimetic illusion of a reality, whatever reality that may be. He chooses colours which create contrasts, be it light and dark or warm and cool: in the foreground, we have the whites and the orangey-yellows painted in quite thick strokes; at the bottom of the canvas, as well as in the background, we have greys, blacks and dark greens which are yet almost transparent, given the fluidity of the piece’s illustrated material.

The clarity of the work’s texture is more accentuated in some places than others, dependent on whether or not visible brush strokes have been left by the artist. Black lines are a strong feature, bringing out the wrinkles on the fruit and the designs on the background wall, and ensuring the stability of the composition.

There is in this work – whose tight structure gives it an intimate feel – a freedom of artistic gesture, a slickness to the fading and an ability to let go of the shackles when painting. This leaves us with a harmonious blend of strokes, colours and texturing. In other words, the piece conveys a pleasure in painting on the part of the artist.

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