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EXCEPTIONAL PAINTING “THE BLONDE AND THE BRUNETTE” by George…
See original version (French)
110
-
EXCEPTIONAL PAINTING “THE BLONDE AND THE BRUNETTE” by George…
See original version (French)
Estimate €180,000 - €220,000
Voluntary lot
Description
EXCEPTIONAL PAINTING “THE BLONDE AND THE BRUNETTE” by Georges BRAQUE (1882–1963)
Collage, graphite, black ink and newspaper clippings on paper mounted on cardboard.
Signed in graphite in the lower right-hand corner.
Three stamps on the reverse: “Avenue de Rumine 50 Lausanne”, two from “Gustav Knauer Spedition Mosel Transport Speichère, Berlin Wein Breslau-Paris” and a blackened label bearing “No. 51”
A certificate by Mr Armand Israël, dated 10 February 2025, is enclosed.
Provenance: Private collection
Dimensions: 59.4 x 41.3 cm
Good condition.
No live bidding via Interencheres for this lot; bids may only be placed by telephone or via a purchase order.
Provenance:
- Charity auction of 1 December 1968, Association for the Development of the Navy’s Social Works (A.D.O.S.M), at the Salons de la Marine, 2 rue Royale – Paris 8th arrondissement.
Under lot no. 23: “collage by Braque, 1917, 59.4 x 41 cm, won by Mr François Daulte”.
Georges Braque, born on 13 May 1882 in Argenteuil (Seine-et-Oise, now Val-d’Oise) and died on 31 August 1963 in Paris, was a French painter, sculptor and printmaker.
Initially following in the footsteps of the Fauvists, influenced by Henri Matisse, André Derain and Othon Friesz, by the summer of 1907 he had arrived at the landscapes of L’Estaque featuring cube-shaped houses, which Matisse described as ‘Cubist’, a style particularly evident in the painting *Maisons à l’Estaque*.
It was through methodically studying Paul Cézanne’s contour lines from 1906 onwards that Braque gradually arrived at compositions featuring slight interruptions in the lines, as in *Still Life with Pitchers*.
Then, with a series of nudes such as *Standing Nude*, and *Le Grand Nu*, he moved, after 1908, towards a break with the classical vision and the fragmentation of volumes – a period commonly referred to as Cubist, which lasted from 1911 to 1914.
He then used geometric shapes, mainly in still lifes, introduced stencilled letters into his paintings, and invented collages.
As a true ‘thinker’ of Cubism, he developed the laws of perspective and colour. He also invented paper sculptures in 1912 – all of which have since been lost, with only a photograph of a counter-relief remaining.
Drafted into the Great War, where he was seriously wounded, the painter abandoned geometric forms in favour of still lifes in which objects are arranged in recomposed planes. During the subsequent period, which lasted until the 1930s, he produced landscapes and human figures; and, despite the diversity of his subjects, his work is ‘remarkably consistent. Braque, both a pioneer and a guardian of the classical tradition, is the quintessential French painter’. *Le Cahier de Georges Braque, 1917–1947*, published in 1948, summarises his position.
The end of his illness and of the Second World War inspired him to create more profound works, such as the “Ateliers”, which he often worked on for several years, pursuing six sketches at once, as Jean Paulhan attests.
His best-known paintings are also his most poetic: the “Oiseaux” series, two examples of which have adorned the ceiling of the Henri II Room at the Louvre since 1953.
See original version (French)
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Lot description modified on 07/07/2026 at 4:49 PM
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