Georges Braque

Aimé Maeght, Paris
Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York
Galerie Engelberts, Geneva
Acquired by the family of the present owner circa 1952

New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., Braque 1924-1952, 1952, no. 18 (as dating from 1946)
Rome, Mostra antologica di Georges Braque, 1958-59
Basel, Kunsthalle, Georges Braque, 1960, no. 77, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Georges Braque, 1963, no. 117, illustrated in the catalogue
Lausanne, Palais de Beaulieu and Paris, Orangerie, Chefs-d'œuvre des collections suisses de Manet à Picasso, 1964, no. 213, illustrated in the catalogue

Pictures on Exhibit, October 1952, illustrated p. 24
'Braque', in Le Point, Souillac, October 1953, illustrated p. 25 (titled Marine and as dating from 1948)
Georges Besson, La Peinture française au XXe siècle, Paris, 1955, vol. I, illustrated pl. 49
John Richardson, Georges Braque, 1959, illustrated pl. 22b (as dating from 1948)
Maeght Editeur (ed.), Catalogue de l'œuvre de Georges Braque. Peintures 1948-1957, Paris, 1959, no. 20, illustrated and illustrated in colour
Pierre Descargues and Massimo Carrà, Tout l'œuvre peint de Braque, 1908-1929, Paris, 1973, no. 462, illustrated p. 105

The theme of boats on the shore is one of the recurrent themes in Braque's œuvre, first celebrated in his Fauve landscapes painted on the French riviera. During his Cubist period, a devotion to the genre of still-life made him almost completely abandon landscapes, until they re-emerged around 1929, when the artist decided to build a large cottage at Varengeville on the Normandy coast. Here Braque spent his summers for the remainder of his life, often setting up his easel to paint on the adjacent beaches. The artist took pleasure in depicting fishing boats, the sea and overhanging cliffs, but most of all the pebbly beach, which he composed of spots of bright colours. The predominantly white foreground of the present work is dotted with luminous, jewel-like touches of yellow, green and brown pigment.