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Email to FriendSigned Georges Braque, Lithograph, L'oiseau et son nid (The Bird and Its Nest)  |
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| Artist: | Braque, Georges (1882 - 1963), After |
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| Title: | L'oiseau et son nid (The Bird and Its Nest) |
| Reference: | M.1024 |
| Medium: | Color Lithograph |
| Image Size: | 20 1/8 x 13 1/2 in (51.3 x 34.3 cm) |
| Sheet Size: | 22 x 15 3/4 in (55.88 x 40 cm) |
| Signed: | This work is hand-signed by Georges Braque (Argenteuil-sur-Seine, 1882- Paris, 1963) in the lower right. |
| Edition: | Numbered 52/300 in pencil in the lower left. |
| Condition: | This work is in excellent condition. |
| Gallery Price: Item# 3810 | Sorry, this item is sold. Please visit the rest of our Braque fine art collection |
| Historical Description: | |
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Reflecting Braque's mature aesthetic style, this piece is a beautiful exploration into Audubon iconography, as Braque uses subtle color variations to depict bird flight and habitat. Characterized by highly varied tonal values and imaginative reductions of form, this is a gentle image of a bird returning to her full nest. Published by Maeght, circa 1956, this work is part of a series of lithographs and etchings that were based upon Braque's original watercolors, gouaches and paintings. Braque was very involved in the printing process, overseeing the lithographer and correcting the proofs when necessary. The work is numbered 22/300 in pencil. This work contains a guaranteed authentic signature by Braque, 'G. Braque,' in pencil in the lower right. The piece also contains the publisher's blindstamp, 'Maeght Editeur' in the lower left. Of Braque's later bird series, Braque scholar Edwin Mullins states, "In the simplest possible manner the metaphysical and the physical merge in these last paintings of birds and sky. Horizon, sky, cosmic space even, are now tactile as formerly Braque had made a jug or a lemon tactile; yet the bird that wings across these clotted skies remains an unreal and insubstantial thing, an image from a dream…In Bird Returning to its Nest [the work from which Bird and Its Nest was inspired], which Braque chose to represent him at the World Fair of 1958, the light and dark areas are reversed, the sky now being a deep brown impasto which even more strongly emphasizes its material nature, while the bird gliding across it is pale buff" (Mullins, 199-200). Catalogue Raisonné & COA: 1) Vallier, Dora; Braque: The Complete Graphics Catalogue Raisonné, 1982. Listed and illustrated as Maeght, no. 1024 on pg. 294. 2) Documented in the Maeght Gallery Archives as Maeght 1024. 3) Mullins, Edward. The Art of Georges Braque, 1968. The original painting this work is based off of is listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 153 on pg. 201. The actual lithograph is listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 149 on pg. 197. | |
| Style: | Modern master, cubism |
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Biography of Georges Braque
Georges Braque (1882 - 1963)
Georges Braque was born on May 13, 1882, in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, France. He grew up in Le Havre and studied evenings at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts there from about 1897 to 1899. He left for Paris to study under a master decorator to receive his craftsman certificate in 1901. From 1902 to 1904, he painted at the Académie Humbert in Paris, where he met Marie Laurencin and Francis Picabia. By 1906, Braque's work was no longer Impressionist but Fauve in style; after spending that summer in Antwerp with Othon Friesz, he showed his Fauve work the following year in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. His first solo show was at Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler's gallery in 1908. From 1909, Pablo Picasso and Braque worked together in developing Cubism; by 1911, their styles were extremely similar. In 1912, they started to incorporate collage elements into their paintings and to experiment with the papier collé (pasted paper) technique. Their artistic collaboration lasted until 1914. Braque served in the French army during World War I and was wounded; upon his recovery in 1917, he began a close friendship with Juan Gris.
After World War I, Braque's work became freer and less schematic. His fame grew in 1922 as a result of an exhibition at the Salon d'Automne in Paris. In the mid-1920s, Braque designed the decor for two Sergei Diaghilev ballets. By the end of the decade, he had returned to a more realistic interpretation of nature, although certain aspects of Braque's Cubism always remained present in his work. In 1931, Braque made his first engraved plasters and began to portray mythological subjects. His first important retrospective took place in 1933 at the Kunsthalle Basel. He won First Prize at the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, in 1937.
During World War II, Braque remained in Paris. His paintings at that time, primarily still lifes and interiors, became more somber. In addition to paintings, he also made Braque etchings, lithographs, engravings, prints and sculpture. From the late 1940s, he treated various recurring themes, such as birds, ateliers, landscapes, and seascapes. In 1954, he designed stained-glass windows for the church of Varengeville. During the last few years of his life, Braque's ill health prevented him from undertaking further large-scale commissions, but he continued to paint, make lithographs, and design jewelry. He died on August 31, 1963, in Paris.
