Braque's Paintings example essay topic

Georges Braque was a French painter born on May 13, 1882, in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, near Paris. He grew up there and in the city of Le Havre where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He began developing his painting skills while working for his father as a house decorator. By 1900 he moved to Paris to purse the study of painting as fine art. In his early works Braques's style was early impressionism. It wasn't until a few years later when he was influenced in the works of well known artists such as Matisse, Derain, Cezanne, and especially Picasso.

Braque meeting Picasso was only the beginning of a huge turning point in his artistic development. Both Picasso and Braque began to work closely together. The two of them began to develop a similar approach in painting and invented analytic cubism. Cubism is a style known for geometric shapes that are seen thorough multiple viewpoints. Both artists produced paintings of neutralized colors and complex patterns. They worked so closely together that many pieces of their work look almost identical.

In many instances only experts can distinguish Braque's paintings from Picasso's. Later, they both began to experiment with collage. Collage is a technique of constructing images from everyday life materials such as newspapers, labels, and pieces of fabric. In 1914, Braque enlisted in the French army. During World War I he had gotten severely wounded in the head and was discharged from the army. He went back home to Paris to resume his artistic career alone in 1917.

After the war, Braque renewed his inspiration and his style became more personal and realistic. This was the second phase of what is known as synthetic cubism. He now painted with brilliant color and textured surfaces with his subjects more recognizable. Still lifes where soon among many of his paintings. Georges Braque continued to paint throughout his life, producing an extreme amount of paintings, graphics, and sculptures. During his last few years, his health began to deteriorate preventing him from undertaking any large-scale projects.

He still continued to paint, make lithographs, and design jewelry. Braque then died on August 31, 1963, in Paris. Braque's paintings were unique and extraordinary. He learned and created many techniques over his lifetime.

Some of his paintings are truly exceptional. For example, one of his well-known paintings is named, "Large Nude", which was done in 1908 on an oil canvas. This paintings color theme is of pinks, buffs, and grays. This picture is of a nude woman whom seems to be standing by an area of rocks. If it wasn't for the bun or knot in the woman's hair, I would have honestly thought it was a male, not a female.

This woman in the painting definitely has a masculine figure. The body is very broad and bulky. The outline of the woman is rather broken up, which seems like Braque deliberately did that on purpose to allow the neck, shoulder, and arm to flow into each other. Another painting of Braque's is named, "Terrace of Hotel Mistral". It was done in 1907 on an oil canvas. This painting in unlike the "Large Nude", whereas every shape is carefully and fully outlined.

No more broken lines in this painting. If you look at the painting closely you will notice that this picture has both vertical and horizontal objects. The buildings and the fence are both vertical as the trees are horizontal. This technique that he used gives the painting a different feel.

His use of more realistic colors definitely gives a more life-like feeling then many of his other paintings. One other work of Braque's is a painting named, "Harbor in Normandy", done in 1909 on an oil canvas. This is one of Braque's first paintings with the thought of "pictorial space". If you analyze the painting you will notice that the whole picture is brought to life by his unique angular and shaded brush strokes. It's almost looks as if the boats and lighthouse in the painting are tangible or even toy-like. Braque created an interesting effect with not allowing the eye much room to escape beyond the sky and the water.

The sky looks very real and almost appears to seem like a storm is approaching. This painting is very simple yet is solid and has pure richness. Georges Braque had emerged as one outstanding artist of his time. His love for painting and his incredible creativeness is just one of the many things that made Braque who he was.

He created a new era in art and took it to the extreme. Today, his artwork now starts at $80,000 to 25 million apiece. I am truly proud to have learned about him and his contributions to art.