.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Fruits sur la table (Fond gris) is an intricate composition of various patterns and textures. Pictorial devices relating to Cubism are evident in the shallow compressed space, and the tilting planes, such as the table top that parallels the picture plane. The varying thickness of the paint textures are created by the application of different layers of paint, and even used to faux bois.
"Still-life has always been the specialty of Braque's genius. Seldom has painting been used to confer so much enchantments on such ordinary things: loaves of bread, knives, packets of cigarettes, fruit, flowers and innumerable domestic accessories. Like Chardin before him, Braque takes us into the salon, the kitchen, the bedroom, the dining-room, even into his own studio in pursuit of reality: nothing is too humble to find a place in one of his pictures. So, from the lowliest objects Braque extracts a new poetry as he paints, and our experience of the world becomes fuller and more exciting" (D. Cooper, "Georges Braque: The Evolution of a Vision", G. Braque, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, September-November 1956, pp. 14-15).
"Still-life has always been the specialty of Braque's genius. Seldom has painting been used to confer so much enchantments on such ordinary things: loaves of bread, knives, packets of cigarettes, fruit, flowers and innumerable domestic accessories. Like Chardin before him, Braque takes us into the salon, the kitchen, the bedroom, the dining-room, even into his own studio in pursuit of reality: nothing is too humble to find a place in one of his pictures. So, from the lowliest objects Braque extracts a new poetry as he paints, and our experience of the world becomes fuller and more exciting" (D. Cooper, "Georges Braque: The Evolution of a Vision", G. Braque, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, September-November 1956, pp. 14-15).