GEORGES BRAQUE | Nature morte: prunes

Paul Rosenberg, Paris
The Drs. Bakwin, New York (acquired from the above in 1927)
Thence by descent

New York, Wildenstein & Co. Inc, The Dr. and Mrs. Harry Bakwin Collection, 1967, no. 2, illustrated in the catalogue 

George Isarlov, Catalogue des oeuvres de Georges Braque, Paris, 1932, no. 383
Galerie Maeght, ed., Catalogue de l'oeuvre de Georges Braque, peintures 1924-1927, Paris, 1962, illustrated p. 62
Gregory Selch, ed., The Bakwin Collection, Paintings and Sculpture, 1925-1970, Collected by Drs. Ruth & Harry Bakwin, New York, 2004, illustrated in color n.p. 

This work is in good condition. The canvas is unlined. Some undulation to the surface as is consistent with sand. Nicely textured. The edges of the canvas show signs of cracking, frame abrasion to the upper and lower edges. Some lines of cracking to the center of the white pigment and to the green in the upper left corner. Under UV light: strokes of inpainting along all four edges to address afforementioned frame abrasion. Some possible strokes of inpainting and some faint incisions in the white pigments at center.
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.

Braque’s still lifes of the 1920s deftly combine French nature morte tradition with the new pictorial language of Cubism and arguably represent the apex of his oeuvre. Braque demonstrates his unaffected relish for the pleasures of simple bourgeois living by depicting unassuming objects of the everyday. Braque described his painterly goal as exploring “how far one can go in blending volume and color” (quoted in Jean Leymarie, Georges Braque (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1988, p. 27). As in Cubist practice, the formal elements of the still life are rendered as flattened shapes that serve as "signs" for the objects they represent. As Isabelle Monod-Fontaine has written: “Nobody else succeeded as he did in transforming a table covered with objects into a mental space, a cerebral as well as a visual stimulus” (Georges Braque: Order and Emotion (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Contemporary Art, Andros, Greece, 2003, p. 19).

While Braque’s pre-war output had been dominated by the revolutionary effects of Cubism, the post-war years fostered a period of dynamic stylistic change. In the wake of rappel à l’ordre and its pervading neoclassical influence, Braque found refuge in the centuries-old tradition of still life. Furthermore, an exhibition of his work at Léonce Rosenberg’s Galerie de L’Effort Moderne in March 1919 established Braque as an independent artist whose work had evolved from the pre-war Cubist style. This sentiment was further bolstered by the Salon d’Automne dedication of a single room to Braque’s work in 1922.

The present assortment of plums atop a white ground demonstrates the subtle mastery of palette which characterizes Braque’s greatest canvases. Restrained in its use of color, Nature morte: prunes attests to the nuanced interplay of black, white and subtle planes of purple and green. It was in this period that Braque mastered the use of black in particular, imbuing his works with the pigment's psychological potency. As John Golding writes: “After the disruption of the War, black continued to appear in Braque’s painting as a kind of ‘balast,’ balancing the other colours or, more frequently, as a shadowy background mixed with dust or sand from which the object merge surrounded by a faint white outline that gives them a ghostly presence… this was not an opaque black, admitting no colour; nor was it Manet’s luminous black, adopted later by Matisse. The grainy texture of Braque’s tactile black lends a nocturnal depth and density, like a nourishing medium, to the various objects it supports (fruit, dishes, baskets, skulls, pallets, birds); the items are tenderly held and surrounded, losing none of their mystery in the process” (Braque: The Late Works (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1997, p. 17).