May 13 - Georges Braque

Artist Georges Braque was born on May 13, 1882, in a Paris suburb and grew up in the port city of Le Havre. Though trained to be a house painter and decorator, he also studied fine art. In Paris he was influenced by the colorful style of the Fauves (“Beasts”), including Matisse. But the works of Cézanne greatly inspired his interest in geometry, simultaneous perspective and the effects of light, leading him to question the basic conventions of painting. In 1908 an art critic mocked his canvas “Maisons à l'Estaque” with the term "bizarre cubiques," describing it as “full of little cubes.” That year he began working with Pablo Picasso, who had pursued a similar style of painting, and together they developed Cubism, producing works in monochromatic color with complex, faceted forms. Braque’s “Woman with a Guitar” (1913, pictured) is a key example of early Cubism, combining a limited palette with multiple planes and mixed perspectives while creating balance and harmony amid fracture and abstraction.