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.