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Lot Essay
A photo-certificate from Claude Laurens dated Paris, 18 June 1990 accompanies this work.
Braque's still-lifes from the 1940s represent an important stage in the artist's lifelong exploration of the problem of depicting objects in space. With their flattened imagery and muted tones, works like Nature morte la thire and Nature morte au pot jaune (see lot 643), are results of Braque's experiments with Cubism from 1907-1914. Braque described his goal of reworking space and form:
"Without having striven for it, I do in fact end by changing the meaning of objects and giving them a pictorial significance which is adequate to their new life. When I paint a vase, it is not with the intention of painting a utensil capable of holding water. It is for quite another reason. Objects are recreated for a new purpose: in this case, that of playing a part in a picture. Once an object has been integrated into a picture, it accepts a new density and at the same time becomes universal. If it remains an individual object this must be due to lack of improvisation or imagination. As they give up their habitual function, so objects become united by the relationships which sprung up between them and the picture and ultimately myself" (quoted in D. Cooper, Braque, The Great Years, Chicago, 1972, p. 111).
Braque's still-lifes from the 1940s represent an important stage in the artist's lifelong exploration of the problem of depicting objects in space. With their flattened imagery and muted tones, works like Nature morte la thire and Nature morte au pot jaune (see lot 643), are results of Braque's experiments with Cubism from 1907-1914. Braque described his goal of reworking space and form:
"Without having striven for it, I do in fact end by changing the meaning of objects and giving them a pictorial significance which is adequate to their new life. When I paint a vase, it is not with the intention of painting a utensil capable of holding water. It is for quite another reason. Objects are recreated for a new purpose: in this case, that of playing a part in a picture. Once an object has been integrated into a picture, it accepts a new density and at the same time becomes universal. If it remains an individual object this must be due to lack of improvisation or imagination. As they give up their habitual function, so objects become united by the relationships which sprung up between them and the picture and ultimately myself" (quoted in D. Cooper, Braque, The Great Years, Chicago, 1972, p. 111).