Before Braque met Pablo Picasso, with whom he invented Cubism, he painted in the bright, bold colors shared by the Fauves, a loosely affiliated group of artists that also included Henri Matisse, André Derain, and Raoul Dufy. They were given this name—meaning "wild beasts"—by an unsympathetic critic in 1905, as a result of the high-pitched colors and anti-naturalistic rendering they embraced. In the summer of 1907 Braque worked in the resort town of La Ciotat, near Marseilles, where he painted this landscape using heavy outlines, flattened space, and intense, harmonic colors.
2011.
Provenance Research Project
This work is included in the Provenance Research Project, which investigates the ownership history of works in MoMA's collection.
The artist; acquired by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1979), Paris, by 1914 [1]; seized during the war by the French government as enemy property and sold through Hôtel Drouot, Paris to "Grassat" (for Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Galerie Simon, Paris), June 13-14, 1921 [2]; acquired by Mayor Gallery, London [3]; sold to Douglas Cooper (1911-1984), London and Argilliers, France, June 1938 [4]; sold to Acquavella Galleries, New York [5]; The Museum of Modern Art, New York (acquired through the Katherine S. Dreier and Adele R. Levy Bequests), 1975.
[1] Michèle Richet and Nadine Pouillon, eds. Georges Braque, exh. cat. Paris: Orangerie des Tuileries, October 16, 1973 - January 14, 1974, Paris: Éditions des musées nationaux, 1973, no. 15: "Historique: Galerie Kahnweiler."
[2] Tableaux, gouaches, & dessins, sculptures, faïences décorées, art nègre, éditions de luxe. [1st sale of Kahnweiler collection]. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, June 13-14, 1921, cat. no. 16. See Malcolm Gee, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting. Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930, New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1981, p. 55.
[3] Date of acquisition unknown.
[4] Dorothy M. Kosinski, Douglas Cooper: Collecting Cubism. Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger, exh. cat. Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, October 14-December 30, 1990, p. 4.
[5] Collection file 373.1975. Date of acquisition unknown.
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Fauvism
A style of painting in the first decade of the 20th century that emphasized strong, vibrant color and bold brushstrokes over realistic or representational qualities.
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