GEORGES BRAQUE (1882-1963)

Details
GEORGES BRAQUE (1882-1963)

Nu allongé

signed and dated bottom left 'G Braque 24'--oil and sand on panel
11 7/8 x 24in. (30.2 x 61cm.)
Painted in 1924
Provenance
E.G. Bührle, Zurich
Literature
G. Isarlov, Catalogue des oeuvres de Georges Braque, Paris, 1932, no. 374
F. Laufer and A. Scherz, Braque, Bern, 1954, pl. 22 (illustrated) M. Gieure, Georges Braque, Paris, 1956, pl. 46 (illustrated; titled Femme nue couchée)
M. Valsecchi and M. Carrà, L'opera completa di Georges Braque, 1908-1929, Milan, 1966, no. 205 (illustrated, p. 96)
ed. Galerie Maeght, Catalogue de l'oeuvre de Georges Braque, Paris, 1968, (Peintures 1924-1927), p. 4 (illustrated)
Exhibited
Pasadena, Art Museum, Georges Braque, April-June, 1960, no. 5 (illustrated)

Lot Essay

The parallels in the careers of Braque and Picasso extend through their cubist phase into the classicism of the 1920s. During this decade Picasso made the human figure the focal point of his non-cubist work, whereas Braque continued to paint the still-life as his primary theme. Nevertheless, Braque painted a series of nudes in the mid-1920s which possess the full, ponderous forms of the classical figure then in vogue. While Picasso's nudes are stocky and rounded in shape, Braque depicts the figure in a far more muscular and monumental manner. He does not emphasize the heroic aspect of the figure; instead he usually depicts his nude figures at rest, and they appear languid and passive, as if the human body itself has become a still-life subject.