1918, Georges Braque, Still Life with Musical Instruments -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: Into a carefully delineated octagon, Braque's composition crowds a sheet of music, a wind instrument, a glass, a cluster of grapes and other less immediately recognizable objects. Varied textures—visible brushstrokes, brisk polka dots, a wave pattern scraped through the wet paint with a comb—call attention to the picture's surface and create an effect reminiscent of collage. Having suspended his painting practice to serve in the French military from I9I4 to 1917, Braque returned to Cubism with a new tactile vigor after the First World War. Musical instruments played a key role in his interwar pictures, for, as he would point out, "as an object, the musical instrument had the particular attraction of being animated by touch." This painting's first owner was a key member of the Parisian musical and theatrical scene: Léonide Massine, a dancer and choreographer for the Ballets Russes.
1918, Georges Braque, Still Life with Musical Instruments -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: Into a carefully delineated octagon, Braque's composition crowds a sheet of music, a wind instrument, a glass, a cluster of grapes and other less immediately recognizable objects. Varied textures—visible brushstrokes, brisk polka dots, a wave pattern scraped through the wet paint with a comb—call attention to the picture's surface and create an effect reminiscent of collage. Having suspended his painting practice to serve in the French military from I9I4 to 1917, Braque returned to Cubism with a new tactile vigor after the First World War. Musical instruments played a key role in his interwar pictures, for, as he would point out, "as an object, the musical instrument had the particular attraction of being animated by touch." This painting's first owner was a key member of the Parisian musical and theatrical scene: Léonide Massine, a dancer and choreographer for the Ballets Russes.