by 
Georges Braque was born in the suburbs of Paris – famous for the Impressionists Argenteuil – here his father owned a workshop for interior decoration. Georges studied the craft of decorators in Le Havre, then in Paris at the School of Fine Arts.
Here he absorbs new trends in painting. Fascinated by the art of Matisse, in 1906 he joined the “Fauves” and created a series of landscapes that seem to absorb all the power of the southern sun and the brightness of the colors of Provence. A distinctive feature of this period is not only the special decorative beauty of Braque’s works, but also a greater constructiveness of the composition than that of the Fauves.
Even then, the art of Cezanne and Picasso began to strongly influence him – this leads to a radical change in the style of Braque. Instead of the previous fluid forms, powerful geometric volumes appear (a striking example is the painting “Houses in Estaque”). A riot of colors, a festive burning of color is replaced by an ascetic range of muted yellowish-ocher, green and gray-blue tones, like in Cezanne. It was then that the expression “cubes” appeared in the speech of artists, giving rise to the name of a new direction in the XX century.
Year of painting: 1908.
Dimensions of the painting: 73 x 60 cm.
Material: canvas.
Writing technique: oil.
Genre: urban landscape.
Style: analytical cubism.
Gallery: Berne Art Museum, Germany.
