Despite their earlier teamwork in inventing Cubism, Picasso had openly rebuffed Braque after World War I.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
Also depicted in Braque's picture is a rosary, wrapped around a large wooden cross.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
Braque, as a thinking person and loyal Frenchman, was profoundly affected by the war years.
In his pocket he had letters of introduction to Braque, Giacometti and other idols.
The great "Vanitas I" by Georges Braque, at the Kreeger Museum in Washington, is a classic example.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
The likes of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko are seen as unworthy successors to Matisse and Braque.
Braque's "Terrace at the Hotel Mistral, L'Estaque" (1907) marks the icons transition from fauvism to Cubism, the museum said.
He went on to found Cubism (with Braque), which led to Modernism and Picasso becoming the most famous artist in the world.
Its roster of artists boasts the names of Marcel Duchamp, Piet Mondriaan and George Braque, to name just a few.
Whereas Picasso knew how to compete against fellow painters from Georges Braque to Henri Matisse, Duchamp could not be beat.
The collection "distinguished by its quality, focus, and depth, " includes 33 Picassos, 17 works by Braque and 14 by Gris and Leger.
BBC: New York Metropolitan Museum of Art receives $1bn donation
Braque, an equally rigorous painter, would later be described, for the precision and structure of his pictures, as the Chardin of cubism.
Interestingly, during these years Braque was soon joined in using this Vanitas subject by Picasso, whose own still-life paintings and sculpture now employed skulls.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
Sinclair is the granddaughter of Paul Rosenberg, a French art agent and dealer who represented his friend Picasso, as well as Matisse and Braque.
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The ways in which these actors are tilted, simplified and sometimes sliced remind us that Braque transformed traditional pictorial space into Cubism's unstable planes.
Oscar Wilde poses with a portrait of Dorian Gray, in a stony-looking robe with folds at rocky angles suggesting forms hewed from Georges Braque's imagination.
But while some of these later works have the suggestion of Christian themes, with the war's conclusion never again would Braque use such explicit religious symbols.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
This constant life-threatening situation, when balanced with Braque's Catholic faith his wife, Marcelle, was quite devout suggests it is reasonable to approach the painting with a religious reading.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
To be sure, Braque and his fellow Cubist Picasso, who also stayed in Paris had a precarious position during the war, for the Germans considered them "degenerate" modern artists.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
His advice is sought at London's Tate Gallery (where he was a trustee) and at the Royal Academy, where in 1997 he curated a memorable Braque show.
Louis, we begin with four long, horizontal canvases, from 1928 and 1929, possibly conceived as an ensemble for the dining room of Braque's Paris dealer, Paul Rosenberg.
In the meantime, we can savor Braque's paintings as paintings.
Braque's mastery of surface inflection and pattern is equally evident.
Last week we celebrated the gift by Leonard Lauder to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York of priceless Cubist paintings and sculptures by Picasso, Braque and others.
Under the Occupation, as Braque continued to explore both the Vanitas and other potential Christian themes, his colors grew increasingly darker, to browns and black, reflecting the growing gloom of Paris.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
"They certainly play on form from traditional African art, but have a strong connection to modern and contemporary art, " he said, citing comparisons to Pablo Picasso, Jean Dubuffet and Georges Braque.
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Curiously, Braque took steps to deny these connections.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
Braque scholars have subsequently disagreed with the artist.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
Indeed, beginning with this still life, the joining of the skull with other symbols appears in Braque's mature work only on the eve of World War II, with these combinations continuing during the Nazi Occupation.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
In the postwar years they again followed different subjects, with Braque returning to the kind of energetic colors he'd used in the Kreeger "Vanitas, " a rich palette that had been interrupted by war and its hardships.
WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.
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