This painting is named The Studio (Vase Before a Window) by Georges Braque. It was painted in 1939(The MET). The painting shows the artists studio in Varengeville. According to Georges Braque.org Georges Braque was born on May 13, 1882 in the city of Argenteuil, France and died on august 31. 1963 in Paris, France. In addition to Pablo Piccaso he is credited as one of the two founders of Cubism. A distinct aspect of his work is his use of distinct shapes and bold colors. He would also change the style and color of his work according to the time weather it was dark or happy times. He also worked with Pablo Piccasso for a lot of his career this was the time period when the two men created the style known as Cubism. Cubism is defined as the use of cubes and interlocking panes to create a picture.
This piece of work shows his studio along the normandy coast. The work also shows his use of bold colors and sharp lines as seen in the darker part of the painting. Being a post World War 2 painting it was a bit different from his immediate post war works as this piece was brightly colored as opposed to his other post war work which was darker in color and tone. This painting has elements of modernism one of the elements is the deviation from the traditional painting style of very realistic and detailed. This piece deviated from that idea in the sense that it muddles the details and focuses into a certain element. Also another element that reflects modernists idea is the use of color in traditional artwork the colors are very close to the real thing whereas in this piece they are very vibrant and bold. In addition to the vibrant and bold colors they do not seem to match the object they are colored to. This in itself is an aspect of modernism as modernism is meant to stray away from tradition and try new things. Another aspect of this piece that shows its modernism is that fact that the colors are sectioned into rectangles and are mismatched.
I was drawn to this piece because the room that this piece was housed in was full of very realistic and true to life paintings. In addition most of the paintings in the room were dark and realistically colored so the bold and non-realistic coloring of this piece caught my eye. another aspect that drew me to this was the sharp lines that the painting had the the use of black. One of the questions that I have is why are the colors sectioned off the way they are because they have to have some meaning but I can’t seem to figure out what it is. In addition I wonder what the use of black is meant to represent.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/486270
Stephen, This is a beautiful painting and a good choice for this assignment. Braque painted it in 1939, so it is not a “post-war” painting. Cubism is, as you know, a form of Modernism. One thing that the Cubists tried to do was to represent on canvas the disjointed and even fragmentary planes that we actually experience when we look at things in real life, rather than rendering a subject in a conventionally realistic way. Nice work!