Georges BRAQUE - Still life with vase and fruit, 1952 - original drawing
Still life with vase and fruit, 1952
Indian ink drawing on paper, 30.5 x 48.5 cm. Signed, dated (1952) and dedicated ("Pour Grenier…") under the composition.
Provenance: Jean Grenier collection
Exhibition: Jean Grenier, A look at painting 1944 - 1971, Musée des Jacobins, Morlaix, from July 6 to October 15, 1990.
Bibliography: Jean Grenier "Regard on painting 1944 - 1971", publisher Musée des Jacobins, 1990
Jean Grenier has been trained in aesthetics since his adolescence, soaking up the light of the shores of the Mediterranean. As adults, many of his friends were artists themselves, among them Max Jacob, Dubuffet and Jacques Busse. But it was above all his long collaboration and his friendship with Jean Paulhan which developed his interest in aesthetics. This collaboration naturally led him to criticism. In September 1944, his former student Albert Camus asked him to take over the artistic section of the newspaper Combat. Jean Grenier invested himself fully in it, from his meetings were born friendships with numerous painters including Debré, Estève, Soulages, Alechinsky, Atlan, and even Messsagier. He was subsequently appointed professor at Farouk 1st University in Alexandria from 1945 to 1950. In 1955, he wrote articles for L'Oeil, also collaborated for L'Express, La Nef, Preuves, the NRF, XXth Century, Behind the Mirror and The Arts Gallery. In 1962, Jean Grenier was appointed to the chair of Aesthetics and Art Science at the Sorbonne. From 1959 to 1961, he was in charge of the French Culture Hour section at RTF. It is therefore over a period which extends over more than thirty years (1937-1971) that Jean Grenier questions the artistic world. For his sections, he starts from the man in his living or working environment. And before the man his home, the workshop where he works: Picasso at the Hôtel des Grands Augustins at the Liberation of Paris, Braque in his house near Parc Montsouris, the workshop "large and clear, very lit, because it gives to the south," he explains. Braque again in a second portrait: "(…) Here he enters: he is tall, robust, with square shoulders, full of quiet strength; in a deep voice he expresses himself in long-meditated sentences, and his blue eyes follow the scope of his words in space. », further: "(…) he remained faithful to his native country. All of Braque is in there, in this loyalty, this constancy. ". This contextualization is the essential preliminary outline to approach the work, he said. (Sources: Patrick Corneau, February 1, 2004)
Dimensions :
- Height : 30,5 cm
- Width : 48,5 cm
Georges Braque :
(1882-1963) is one of the founding fathers of Cubism. The artist grew up in Le Havre before coming to Paris in 1900. He turned to Fauvism in 1905 and exhibited the next year at The "Salon des Indépendants".
Braque met Picasso at the "Bateau-Lavoir" in 1907 by means of Apollinaire. Both artists share an admiration for Cézanne. Giving up landscape for still life, Braque collaborated with Picasso in the formulation of "analytical" then "hermetic" Cubism doctrines. From 1912, the invention of the "papiers collés" allowed him to reintroduce color which became independent from shape ("Still life with violin", 1912). As a pioneer, he was the first to introduce in his works the printing letter, to use the combs to paint, fake wood, and to add sand, sawdust and nail to the painting surface.
His mobilization in 1914, marked his separation from Picasso. Braque then essentially dedicated himself to still life. From 1928, the artist lightened his palette and the purchase of his Varengeville-sur-mer property near Dieppe in 1930, announced the reappearance of the landscape in his painting. On the other hand, World War II, inspired his darkest paintings. He died in Paris in 1963.
