Georges Braque

Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paris and New York (acquired from the artist)

Vladimir Golschmann, St. Louis (acquired from the above in February 1944)

Acquired from the above

Paris, Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Braque, 1937

Paris, Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Braque, 1938, no. 16

New York, Flushing Meadows Park, New York World's Fair, 1939

St. Louis, The City Art Museum, St. Louis Collections, An Exhibition of 20th Century Art, 1948, no. 7 (as dating from 1930-35)

New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Pictures Collected by Yale Alumni, 1956, no. 152

In the decades following the invention of Cubism Braque continued to refine and reexamine the expressive possibilities of his still lifes, always creating innovative ways to represent common objects.   In this composition from the late 1930s Braque literally sheds new light on the subject.  The objects on the table are spotlighted in the center of the picture, and the background is left in varying degrees of shadow.  Constrasts of light and dark add facets to forms that would otherwise appear flat, and Braque maximizes this effect by abruptly changing the tone of a single object.  Take, for example, the two-toned bottle on the left, which appears to be bifurcated by the sharp edge of light and shadow.   The other forms -- the bowl, the knife, the loaf of bread, and the pipe -- all radiate from the center of the table into the darker surrounding space, enhancing the picture's depth and dimension.

Braque's paintings of the late 1930s, including the present work, were bolder and more compositionally dynamic than his works from the first years of the decade.    By the time he painted this picture, the artist's mood was more enlivened, resulting in fresh and reinvigorated compositions like this one.  Braque's dealer, Paul Rosenberg, acquired this work from the artist shortly after it was completed in 1937 and exhibited it in two exhibitions at his Paris gallery in the late 1930s and at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.  The painting was acquired in 1944 by Vladimir Golschmann, the conductor of the St. Louis symphony orchestra from 1931 until 1958.