GEORGES BRAQUE | Compotier, fruits, verre et branche

Paul Rosenberg, Paris (acquired by 1932)
Templeton Crocker, San Francisco (acquired by 1940)
Mr. & Mrs. David E. Bright, Los Angeles
Sale: Christie's, New York, June 27, 1972, lot 40
Thomas Gibson Fine Art, London
Acquired from the above in October 1984

San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art, Fifth Anniversary, 1940, no. 49, illustrated in the catalogue
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, French Painting S.F., 1948, n.n.
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Georges Braque, 1963, no. 76
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum (on extended loan)

George Isarlov, Catalogue des oeuvres de Georges Braque, Paris, 1932, no. 455
Galerie Maeght, ed., Catalogue de l'oeuvre de Georges Braque, vol. I, Paris, 1968, no. 101, illustrated in color n.p.

Please contact the Impressionist & Modern department at 212-606-7360 for a condition report prepared by a third-party conservator.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The still life was a theme to which Braque returned consistently throughout his long career. In every phase, beginning with the Fauve period and culminating in the majestic interiors of his last years, Braque found the arrangement of a limited number of objects on a tabletop or in an interior to be the most appropriate subject for his investigations of the formal and tactile qualities of painting. In the decades following the invention of Cubism, Braque continued to refine and re-examine the expressive possibilities of his still lifes: “You see, I have made a great discovery. I no longer believe in anything. Objects don’t exist for me except in so far as a rapport exists between them or between them and myself. When one obtains that sense of peace, which makes everything possible and right. Life then becomes a perpetual revelation. That is true poetry” (quoted in John Golding, Braque, The Late Works (exhibition catalogue), The Menil Collection, Houston, 1997, p. 10).

The present assortment of pears arranged in a silvery fruit bowl perched atop a white cloth, accompanied by a leafy branch and a bifurcated glass, demonstrates the subtle mastery of palette and command of form which characterizes Braque’s greatest canvases. Restrained in its use of color, Compotier, fruits, verre et branche attests to the nuanced interplay of black, white and subtle highlights of green and yellow. It was in this period that Braque mastered the use of black in particular, imbuing his works with the pigment's psychological potency.