GEORGES BRAQUE, Théière et Serviette, 1942

This oil painting, from 1942, was done on paper and mounted on a canvas. It is quite fluid, thanks to the artist’s brush strokes and the work’s texture.

The painting’s look is largely a product of its two-dimensionality; all the elements of this composition emphasise its front-facing nature, owing to the almost overpowering presence of a dark blue and brown-beige background. That background is covered in decorative shapes that come across as geometric and lacking in depth. The objects – that is: the napkin, the table and the teapot – are seized upon by the background, meaning that they do not necessarily grab the viewer’s attention immediately. In Classical or Academic art, objects are represented very clearly against a background. In this work, by contrast, the background comes forward and itself dulls the visibility of the objects. The two parts of the work – ‘figures’ and background – are no longer meaningfully separated, instead seeming to be morphed together. The background, with its decorative marks, becomes a central part of this work, pervading the space inhabited by the figures. Georges Braque signals a clean break from the usual order of things in painting: no longer do the objects dominate over the background, but it is the decorative background itself which becomes the painting’s real theme.

All the central aspects of Modern Art can be seen in this painting, including the front-facing nature of the material, forms and colours, which lead to a reduction in perspective. In addition, we see a simplified style, a clear visibility of the artist’s brush strokes and an abandonment of local colour. This is all in absolute opposition to a mimetic style. The way that the piece is created is now a product not of the objects it represents, but of the painting’s own fundamental balance and harmony.

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