Candlestick and Playing Cards on a Table

Georges Braque

spring 1910 · Oil on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

In their quest to upend tradition in art, Braque and Pablo Picasso remained ironically committed to long-established subjects in the history of European painting: portraiture, the human figure, and still life. Here, Braque’s still life attracts the viewer with fragments of recognizable objects. Within the tonal brushwork of grays, browns, and blacks, we can catch glimpses of the corner of a table, a brass candlestick, and playing cards. The oval format, which dates back to sixteenth-century France, concentrates and compresses the painting’s energy.

Artist

Georges Braque

Date

spring 1910

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

The Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls Collection, 1997