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Home , Jean Metzinger, Sonia Delaunay

10720 Picasso and Braque before On the development of Cubism, Braque famously referred to the spirit of competitive collaboration between Picasso Cubist in France and himself as “like two mountaineers roped together.” So close was the alliance, it is sometimes difficult to tell the

works apart. Braque’s are more concentrated on and by are generally considered more sensuous in colour and paint

Dr John W Nixon quality. The partnership was broken in 1914, on the out- break of , when Braque enlisted. He was Cubism was a coherent artistic force from about 1908 wounded in 1915 and did not return to painting until 1917. Related Study Notes to 1914, the outbreak of World War I, although its

influence persisted into the 1920s and beyond, making (1881–1973) 10050 it in the view of many the most radical and influential Pablo Picasso is widely regarded as the greatest visual Perspectives on 20th century artistic movement. The Cubists always artist of the 20th century, dominating innovative art practice retained some kind of descriptive reference to the from the first decade up at least until the end of the 1950s. 10060 He produced prodigious quantities of highly inventive work From realism to abstraction visible world but their particular kind of ‘realism’ marks, for western painters, a significant shift towards the in a wide variety of styles and media, these including paint- 10710 abstract and conceptual – recording what they knew ings, drawings, prints, constructions, sculptures, ceramics about something as well as what they saw. The ‘optical’ and even theatrical designs. His ability to work creatively in 10740 realism that dominated since the various styles at any one time was remarkable. The son of a Northern Expressionist Renaissance – premised on a single point of observat- painter and art teacher, he was an accomplished academic painting ion fixed in time and space – is rejected. The independ- draftsman by about fourteen. He moved from Barcelona to in 1904, having first visited in 1900. He 10844 ent and active reality of the artist-observer, artist- remained a French resident for the rest of his life. Matisse: middle and late creator, is asserted in a new way, as is the independent painting reality of the picture, or the picture plane, itself. What Sir Lawrence Gowing, as general editor of A Biographic- happens within the picture frame is now governed less al Dictionary of Artists, 1994, sketches Picasso’s artistic 10845 by the laws of optics than it is by the laws of art. beginnings, including his so-called Blue Period (c.1901–4) Picasso: middle and late and Rose Period (1904–6), as follows: painting Early Cubism further develops the shifting view- points and planar brushstrokes of Paul Cézanne (1839– His early works of 1898 to 1905, full of adolescent eclec- ticism, are also powerfully individual. With remarkable 30421 1906) and marries to this an openness to so-called facility and vivacity he assimilated ideas and techniques Paul Cézanne ‘primitive’ aesthetics and forms of depiction – African from Post- and other fin-de-siècle art, as tribal and Iberian (pre-Roman Spanish) in particular. In well as from older painting (for instance Classical art and High or Analytic Cubism, many views or facets of the In the text, a Z symbol the works of El Greco). What distinguished him from the object are presented simultaneously, in a kaleidoscope refers to these Study Notes French avant-garde, with whom he became associated, of line, tone, transparent and opaque planes. Lettering, was that he cast his net so wide… He was more involved from about 1911, and collage, from about 1912, appear as a painter with concepts and faiths than with the act of frequently, forcing attention onto the picture plane. In looking. He felt strongly affinities with French Symbolist Late or Synthetic Cubism, the fracturing or faceting literature (with Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Verlaine). He had lessens and objects are as much simply denoted – been closely associated with the Barcelona literary represented by signs, symbols or emblems – as avant-garde, and his significant early contacts in Paris depicted ‘in the round.’ Colour and individuality of were also with writers (Apollinaire, Jacob, Gertrude artistic approach reassert themselves. Stein, Jarry)… Cubism in its beginnings was largely the creation of Fig. 1 Picasso, La Vie (Life), 1903; oil on canvas, 196.6 x 129 cm/ the Spanish-born but French-resident Pablo Picasso 77.4 x 50.8 in; Cleveland, Museum of Art, Gift of Hanna Fund. (1881–1973) and the Frenchman (1882– Reproduced from Roland Penrose, Picasso, Great Artists Collection, 1963). Major contributions were also made by vol. 18, Encyclopaedia Britannica/ Phaidon Press, London, 1971, (1887–1927), Fernand Léger (1881–1955), Robert ISBN 0-85229-093-4, plate 7. Delaunay (1885–1941) and (1885–1979). The content of Picasso’s early work is about the reality of The name Cubism was coined by the art critic Louis life more than art or nature. The intense melancholy of Vauxcelles (also responsible for naming Fauvism) when his “Blue Period” (c1901–4) is infected with fin-de-siècle he, along with Matisse, referred disparagingly to obsessions with life and death, images of energy and Braque’s Houses at l’Estaque, 1908, as being compos- lack of energy. In art, he was interested in Munch, Van ed of “little cubes.” This name, although rather mislead- Gogh, and Gauguin… ing when applied to most Cubist , began to be In the “Rose Period” (1904–6), his palette lightens widely used and, by 1912, when the French Cubist towards pinks, greys, and ochres and the mood sweet- painters and jointly ens to a poignant sadness. Subjects come from circus produced On Cubism, the first theoretical publication on the movement, it had become established. Fig. 2 Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, 1905; oil on canvas, 212.7 x 229.6 cm/ 83.75 x 90.4 in; Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art, Chester Dale Collection. Reproduced from Penrose, plate 11.

1/5 10720u.doc: first published 2004; revised 2007 CCEA GCE and theatre, the acrobats and strolling play- Even within itself the painting contains an unresolved ers (many of them Spanish) that he had befriended… clash of styles (it is uncertain whether Picasso himself ever Subsequently, under the pervasive influence of considered the work finished): the three figures on the left French art, he concentrated on formal problems and this revealing the influence of Iberian, and possibly Egyptian, muting of subject matter continued. Still monochromatic, sculpture; the two more angular ones on the right, that of but now less emotive in colour (using browns and African tribal art. The harshly lit forms, and particularly the ochres), the paintings of 1906 seem devoid of sentiment sharp icy blues and whites in the background, recall El (for example, Portrait of and Two Nudes, Greco. The general treatment of the women’s forms, the drapery and the sharply angled still-life arrangement of fruit

in the middle foreground, on the other hand, reveal Fig. 3 Picasso, Gertrude Stein, 1906; oil on canvas, 99.7 x 81.3 cm/ Cézanne’s influence. This is also felt in the sense of shifting 39.25 x 32 in; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gertrude viewpoints. For instance, the squatting figure on the right Stein Bequest. Reproduced from Penrose, plate 15. looks directly at the viewer but it is not clear whether the body itself is being seen from front or back. Similarly, the both in the Museum of , New York). His second figure from the left initially appears to be standing, concern is with sculptural and tonal oppositions, and he like the women on either side of her, but on closer experiments with formal devices from various traditions, inspection the pose is an odalisque-like reclining one. classical and archaic… This conscious formal confrontation reaches a climax Fig. 4 Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1906-7; oil on canvas, in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907; Museum of Modern 243.8 x 233.7 cm/ 96.0 x 92.0 in; , New York. Reproduced form Penrose, plate 16. Art, New York). It is both a summation of his early work and the start of a revolutionary new phase in Picasso’s The aggressively direct stares of three, at least, of the art. The painting started in the mood of refined, stylised five women underscore the painting’s narrative content; resolution that had made his early reputation. Its barely something confirmed by the numerous preparatory draw- disguised allusions to the late works of Cézanne and to ings and sketches, some of which feature two men – either those of his contemporary, Matisse, suggest that it was two sailors or a sailor and a medical student. The American some sort of conclusive answer to French traditions of art historian Leo Steinberg, in a 1972 article entitled “The monumental figure painting. But both the savageness of Philosophical Brothel,” has taken issue with the predomi- its change of mood and technique (apparently inspired nantly formal analyses which have been directed at the by African tribal art) and Picasso’s dramatic alterations to painting, writing: “The subject, set in a brothel, is a dramatic the work display the radical degree of enquiry to which entrance – the advent of a man.”2 he was to submit painting during the next decade.1 A connection could be drawn here with Ingres’s harem Georges Braque (1882–1963) scenes. Picasso did in fact produce ‘neoclassical’ work, c.1917-25, in which Ingres was an acknowledged influence. Georges Braque was the son of a painter-decorator and, Manet’s , 1863, may also be cited. from 1899 to 1901, was apprenticed in that trade. Many of the techniques and effects thus learned – wood-graining, In its analysing, breaking down, simplifying visual forms marbling, lettering, wall-papering, mixing sand with paint to within a shallow pictorial depth, Les Demoiselles, regarded achieve a variety of textures – he subsequently brought into by many as the greatest painting of the 20th century, repre- fine art painting. In 1900 he went to Paris and, continuing sents a major development of the approach established by his apprenticeship part-time, enrolled at the École des Cézanne and prepares the way for many of the major devel- Beaux Arts. He joined the Fauve movement, led by Matisse, opments in 20th century art, abstract and non-abstract. in 1905, producing brightly coloured landscapes such as Landscape at L’Estaque, 1906, and The Jetty, L’Estaque, Other Early Cubist works 1906. In 1907, however, under the growing influence of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was not sold until 1920, not Cézanne, he began to subdue his colour and inject a more reproduced until 1922, and not publicly exhibited until 1937, geometrical structuring into his compositions. but one of the few allowed to see it in 1907 was Braque. Shocked and repelled by it initially, it prompted him towards an altogether more radical approach to painting. Early Cubism c.1907–09 One of the first products of this was his Large , The beginning of the first of three Cubist phases is marked 1907. Through 1908, much of it spent around L’Estaque in by Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907. Provence where Cézanne had lived, Braque’s treatment of landscape shows a steady stylistic development from the Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1906–7 Cézannesque to the Cubist, as in Viaduct at L’Estaque and The dominant colours within the painting correspond with Houses at L’Estaque, both of 1908.

Picasso’s Blue and Rose periods. In this limited respect the Fig. 5 Georges Braque, Large Nude, 1907-8, oil on canvas, 141.6 x work can be seen as some kind of synthesis of the earlier 101.6 cm/ 55.75 x 40 in; Galerie Alex Maguy, Paris. work. As Gowing notes, however, the work as a whole represents a savage break with the renaissance tradition. Early Cubist painting as a whole is characterised by

1 Sir Lawrence Gowing (general editor), A Biographical Dictionary of 2 Leo Steinberg, “The Philosophical Brothel,” Art News, September Artists, Grange Books, London, 1994, ISBN 1 85627 666 X, p. 522. 1972, pp. 20-1.

2/5 10720u.doc: first published 2004; revised 2007 CCEA GCE HISTORY OF ART works revealing strong interests in both Cézanne and so- or papier collé (pasted paper) works. There is painted called ‘primitive’ art – specifically, African, Iberian (pre- lettering in Braque’s small oval painting Guitar, 1910-11, Roman Spanish), and perhaps also Egyptian forms of and stencilled lettering in his Le Portugais, an oil painting representation and ‘beauty’ being favoured over classical or produced in the summer of 1911. Most scholars consider it academic ones. Whereas in a typical Cézanne treatment was Braque, with his house-painting training, who was the changes of viewpoint within any one work are relatively first to use letterforms in this way; a device almost immedi- minor and subtle, in a typical Cubist treatment they are ately taken up by Picasso. major and stressed. Familiar objects are depicted by means TEXTS AND PUNS of interlocked quasi-geometrical forms, without traditional Letterforms set up complex plays of visual and textual refer- , atmospheric recession, realistic colour or ences. The texts often function not simply as part of the texture. Space within the paintings is shallow, akin almost to overall visual image but as titles, puns or some other kind of the overlapping ‘flats’ of a stage set. written message. In Picasso’s Guitar, Sheet-music and Fig. 6 Georges Braque, Houses at l’Estaque, 1908; oil on canvas, Wineglass, autumn 1912, for instance, there appear in large 73.0 x 60.0 cm/ 28.75 x 23.6 in; Hermann Rupf Collection, Berne, bold type the words “Le Jou” (the game); and below this in Switzerland. This is the work Vauxcelles and Matisse referred to as smaller type, “La Bataille s’est engage” (the battle was being composed of “little cubes.” engaged). These texts, it has been shown, result from Picasso’s cropping of the front page of the 18 November In this, as in all three Cubist phases, subjects and 1912 edition of the Parisian newspaper Le Journal.3 themes tend to be fairly simple and static; in the main, still

life, portrait and figure studies, and landscape. Les Demois- Fig. 9 Picasso, Guitar, Sheet-music and Wineglass, 1912; pasted elles d’Avignon, itself, is an exception in this respect, as has papers, gouache and charcoal on paper, 48 x 37 cm. 18.9 x 14.6 in; been seen. Other major Early Cubist works include Marion Koogler-McNay Art Museum. Reproduced from Cooper, p. Braque’s Harbour in Normandy, 1909, and Picasso’s Three 186. Women, 1908, and The Reservoir at Horta Del Ebro, 1909. LETTERING “NOT IN SPACE” The nature of letterforms is to be immaterial, floating vague- ly between the world of symbol and idea and the other world High or Analytic Cubism c.1910–12 of material reality. They are a potent metaphor for the whole The second, ‘High’ or ‘Analytic,’ phase of Cubism is charact- Cubist enterprise. Braque himself said that lettering was a erised by the further development of techniques and dev- group of “forms which could not be distorted because, being ices for presenting simultaneously within the one painting themselves flat, they were not in space, and thus by different views or facets of an object or scene. Some schol- contrast their presence in the picture made it possible to ars consider there is a deliberate attempt to produce the distinguish between objects situated in space and those sense of a fixed, two-dimensional, visual record of a “walk which were not.”4 The flatness and reality of the painting around an object.” Others see such a programme as over- surface was thereby emphasized. rationalizing the creative act. The range of colours used is severely restricted, generally to muted greys, ochres and Trompe l’oeil effects browns. Single-point perspective, aerial perspective, In his Violin and Palette, 1909–10 (Fig. 10), Braque textures and other traditional means of representing illusion- achieved the same result by a different means; here the istic picture space are set aside in favour of a new spatial palette within the painting is hung on a trompe l’oeil ‘nail’. treatment of superimposed, overlapping and interlocking semi-transparent planes within a shallow picture space. Collage or papiers collés (pasted papers) In of 1912 Picasso used a piece of printed oil- Fig. 7 Pablo Picasso, Man Smoking a Pipe, 1911; oil on canvas, cloth to represent a cane chair seat in his painting Still Life 91.4 x 71.7 cm/ 36 x 28.25 in; collection unknown; reproduced from with Chair Caning, thereby introducing the technique or Douglas Cooper, The Cubist Epoch, 1971, ISBN 0-7148-1448-2, p. medium of collage into fine art practice. Similarly, in 55. September the same year, Braque used a papier collé (pasted paper) technique in his Fruit Dish and Glass. Lettering Numerous works using ‘throw away’ or ‘found’ materials Lettering, sometimes forming recognizable words or parts of such as labels, sheets of newspaper, bits of cardboard, cord words, is a frequent and conspicuous feature of Cubist and wood, quickly followed. These in turn led to the product- ion of high relief constructions and . Fig. 8 Braque, Le Portugais, 1911; oil on canvas, 117 x 82 cm/ 46.1 x 32.3 in; Kunstmuseum Basel. Photo: Hans Hinz; ©ADAGP, Paris, Fig. 10 Braque, Violin and Palette, 1909-10; oil on canvas, 92.1 x DACS, London 1993; reproduced from Charles Harrison, Francis 42.7 cm/ 36.25 x 16.8 in; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New Frascina and Gill Perry, Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early York. Reproduced from Cooper, p. 43. Twentieth Century, Yale University in association with The Open University, 1993, ISBN 0-300-05516-1, p. 137.

3 See, for example, Charles Harrison, Francis Frascina and Gill paintings from the summer of 1911. Whilst printed texts Perry, Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: the Early Twentieth often feature on the newsprint, labels and other ‘found’ Century, Open University and Yale University, 1993, ISBN 0-300- materials used by Picasso and Braque from 1912, use of 05516-1, pp. 91ff. 4 Quoted in Douglas Cooper, The Cubist Epoch, London, Phaidon, letter-forms seems to pre-date by a year or two the collage 1971, pp. 54-56.

3/5 10720u.doc: first published 2004; revised 2007 CCEA GCE HISTORY OF ART Oval formats Other Cubist painters As a foil to the heavy network of centralized horizontals and JUAN GRIS (1887–1927) verticals in the typical Analytic Cubist painting, and to cir- Juan Gris moved from his native Madrid to Paris in 1906 cumvent the problem of what to do with empty space, oval and made a major contribution to Cubism in its Synthetic formats were frequently used, as in Braque’s Guitar, 1910- phase. He took as his starting point not the observed 11, or Picasso’s Violin, Glass and Pipe on Table, 1912. Fig. 16 Juan Gris Landscape at Céret, 1913; oil on canvas, 92.1 x 59.9 cm/ 36.25 x 23.6 in; Stockholm, Moderna Museet. Reproduced Fig. 11 Picasso, Glass and Bottle of Suze, 1912; pasted papers, from Cooper, p. 201. gouache and charcoal on paper; 65 x 81 cm/ 25.6 x 31.9 in; Washington University Gallery of Art, St Louis. © DACS 1993. Reproduced from Harrison, Frascina and Perry, p. 86. object but rather painting’s abstract elements – line, shape, colour, texture, etc. Through arrangements and combinat- Fig. 12 Pablo Picasso, Still Life With Chair Caning, 1912; oil and ions of these elements he suggested an observed reality, printed oilcloth on canvas, surrounded by cord, 27 x 35 cm/ 10.6 x but it was the reality of the picture surface or plane itself 13.8 in; Musée Picasso, Paris. which was his primary concern. Gowing writes: Characteristic qualities of his art are the dense immut- able sense of surface, the almost austere clarity of the Late or Synthetic Cubism c.1913–14 image, and the rhythmical structure in which lines and Cubism’s final phase, as with that of Cézanne, is generally edges blend into a lyrical, disciplined architecture…5 referred to as Synthetic, meaning in this context brought together to imitate or replace usual realities. In philosophy FERNAND LÉGER (1881-1955) and science, synthetic usually contrasts with analytic. As a Fernand Léger studied architecture before turning to paint- description or definition of late Cubist works, some have ing. His subject was the modern industrialised world – whilst serving at the Front in World War I he was impressed by the Fig. 13 Juan Gris, Sunblind, 1914; pasted paper and charcoal on beauty of machine forms, particularly the great guns. canvas, 92 x 72.5 cm/ 36.25 x 28.6 in; London, Tate Gallery. Cézanne, Picasso and Braque were acknowledged influ- Reproduced from Masterpieces of The Tate and National Galleries; ences. By 1913–14 he had developed a highly personal introduction by Robert Melville, descriptive notes by Sir John Rothenstein and Sir Philip Hendy; Heron Books, London, 1964, p. form of Cubism based on bright colours and cylindrical or 244. other geometrical forms. Observed forms are geometricis- ed, made machine-like, rather than fragmented, “and the found this an inadequate term but no alternative has gained picture is still a scene rather than an object in its own general approval. Synthetic Cubism’s dating (c.1913–14) right.”6 has also been much debated. It can be argued that, in various guises, Cubism continued as a significant force at Fig. 17 Fernand Léger, The City, 1919; oil on canvas, 231 x 296 least until the rise of in 1924. cm/ 91 x 116.5 in; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gallatin Collection. To the work itself. In Analytic Cubism the painter com- Reproduced from John Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art, bines simultaneously various visual impressions of the Thames and Hudson, London, 1959, prepagination. same object or scene and reduces these to patterns of Fig. 18 Fernand Léger, Three Women, 1921; oil on canvas, 184 x quasi-geometrical lines and planes. In Late or Synthetic 251 cm/ 72.25 x 99 in; Museum of Modern Art, New York. Cubism, the fracturing or faceting lessens and objects are Reproduced from Edward Lucie-Smith Visual Arts in the 20th Century, Laurence King Publishing, London, 1996, ISBN 1-85669- Fig. 14 Picasso, Vive La France, 1914; oil on canvas, 52.1 x 63.5 090-3, p. 123. cm/ 20.5 x 25 in; Chicago, collection Mr and Mrs Leigh B. Block. Reproduced from Penrose, plate 22. (1885–1941) Robert Delaunay began as a theatre designer. Along with as much simply denoted – represented by signs, symbols, his wife Sonia, whom he married in 1910, he developed a emblems or simplified shapes and lines – as depicted ‘in the round.’ Synthetic Cubist paintings tend to be more colourful Fig. 19 Robert Delaunay, The Eiffel Tower, 1911(?); oil on canvas, 202 x 138 cm/ 79.5 x 54.5 in; The Solomon R. Guggenheim and inventively textured than those of the earlier phases. Museum, New York. Reproduced from Cooper, p. 81. Sometimes colours and textures are natural to the motif, sometimes an arbitrary artistic invention. brightly coloured and dynamic form of Cubism, mostly Fig. 15 Picasso, Fruit-dish, Bottle and Guitar, 1914; oil on canvas, taking cityscapes, cathedrals and the Eiffel Tower as 92.1 x 73.0 cm/ 36.25 x 28.75 in; Rome, private collection. subjects. By about 1911–12, with their “colour discs” and Reproduced from Penrose, plate 23. “windows” series, they had developed what became known as “Orphic” cubism and were producing some of the earliest Whilst Analytic Cubism is notable for the similarities completely abstract paintings. between the work of one of its exponents and another (in particular, of course, that of Picasso and Braque), Synthetic SONIA DELAUNAY (1885–1979) Cubism is notable for the diversity and richness of its mani- Sonia Terk Delaunay (or Delaunay-Terk) was born in the festations. There is a further shift of concern away from the Ukraine and settled in Paris in 1905. With her husband represented and towards the representation itself; another step towards abstraction. 5 Gowing, p. 285. 6 Gowing, p. 371.

4/5 10720u.doc: first published 2004; revised 2007 CCEA GCE HISTORY OF ART Robert she developed the variation of Cubism known as (see above). Childhood memories of Russian folk- art were an influence. She worked creatively well into old

Fig. 20 Sonia Delaunay, Simultaneous Contrasts, 1912; oil on canvas, 45.5 x 55 cm/ 17.8 x 21.6 in; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris. Reproduced from Lucie-Smith, p. 89.

age and extended Orphic principles of dynamic colour harmonies into the applied arts of textiles, fashion, ceram- ics, theatrical design and illustration. Two other notable Cubist painters were Albert Gleizes (1881–1953) and Jean Metzinger (1883–1957). Gleizes and Metzinger also co-wrote the first theoretical account of Cubism – Du Cubism, 1912.

Picasso and Braque after Cubism Picasso continued to produce major work almost up to his death in 1973 (Z10845), some of which contributes to the subject content for the A2 part of this course. Braque’s later work includes many still lifes and interior scenes, boldly designed, richly textured and generally in sonorous combinations of greens, browns, creams, greys and white. Nudes, beach scenes, birds, and the artist’s studio – ambiguous and mysterious – also feature frequently as subjects.

5/5 10720u.doc: first published 2004; revised 2007 CCEA GCE HISTORY OF ART