Georges Braque: Cubist Artist and Co-Founder of the Cubist Art Movement

Georges Braque was born on May 13, 1882 in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, near Paris. He is considered one of the greatest Cubist artists and co-founder of the Cubist movement along with Pablo Picasso.

Georges Braque's father was a house painting contractor by profession and also an amateur artist. Braque continued in his father's profession; in 1900 he left for Paris where he apprenticed under a decorator. He attended the Academie Humbert from 1902 to 1904 to study painting. During this period Braque befriended Othon Friesz and Raoul Dufy, the popular artists from Le Havre. He was profoundly impressed by the bold style followed by the Fauves (French for 'wild beasts') in art.

Braque was extremely fascinated by the Fauvist style of using luminous colors and loose structures of forms to catch hold of even the deepest emotional responses, as depicted in the art of Andre Derain, Henri Matisse and other Fauvist artists. As a result, in 1905 Braque completely abandoned his impressionistic style which he had employed in his former paintings on canvas, and applied the Fauvist style in his works.

Braque's art from 1908-1913 clearly reflects his concentration on geometry and the harmonized perspective. Braque focused on the very nature of visual delusion and artistic demonstration. He often condensed an architectural edifice to a geometric form similar to a cube or rectangular prism and rendered its shading, so that it appears to viewers as simultaneously even and three dimensional.

In 1909 Braque had the opportunity to work with Pablo Picasso who had a similar approach towards painting. Together, they formed the Cubist movement and created his art on canvas in a style currently referred to as Analytic Cubism. Braque, along with Picasso, also experimented with collage painting, which is a method of creating pictures using resources such as fabric pieces, newspapers and labels. The fruitful partnership between Braque and Picasso lasted till 1914 when Braque got recruited in the French Army and left Paris to participate in the First World War.

In 1917 Braque restarted his career as an artist and stayed away from the regular concept of cubism. He went on to develop a more personalized style, illustrated with lustrous color and textured surfaces that reproduced cubist elements. He later moved to the Normandy seacoast and created paintings associated with still subjects of life. As his career progressed, Braque was influenced to a certain extent by Surrealism, though he stayed a Cubist throughout.

Braque's famous paintings include "Fruit Dish", "Harbor in Normandy", "Musical Instruments", "Man with a Violin", "The Emigrant", "Violin and Candlestick", "Fishing Boats" and many more.

This illustrious personality died on August 31, 1963, in Paris.