Painting Collection Georges Braque Vase, Palette, and Skull (1882—1963) In this painting from 1939, Georges Braque depicts his studio as a collection of overlapping surfaces, textures, and colors. Throughout his career, the French artist was interested in capturing the materiality of objects around him. He painted using a Cubist approach, which he first pioneered with Pablo Picasso in the early 20th century—Braque described their collaboration as akin to “mountain-climbers roped together.” While Picasso later pursued other artistic directions, Braque continued to develop his Cubist methods. By the late 1930s, he was primarily painting his atelier in dark tones: deep purples and blues, mustard yellows, and rich browns. In these works, he condenses the space in his studio, where objects—an easel, a vase, an artist’s palette, and various pieces of furniture and frames—are flattened and fractured in impossible ways. Yet Braque brings depth to the painting by mixing sand into his oil paint, creating great texture. He also carefully captures wood grains of various objects, referencing his early background as a decorative house painter. Painted just before the Nazi occupation of France, this picture carries ominous tones, from the somber palette to the appearance of a skull. While the artist later insisted his use of skulls was apolitical, the looming danger of World War II would have been inescapable. Braque, himself a veteran severely wounded in World War I, initially fled Paris in 1940 with his wife Marcelle, returning soon after to spend the war years in occupied France. |
  
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