Doves - Georges BRAQUE (1882 - 1963)

Georges BRAQUE (1882 - 1963, France)
Colombes

Etching on Japan paper
33.5 x 51 cm (Image 19.5 x 36.5 cm)
Signed lower left, numbered 3/4 and dedicated "Pour Broder".
Circa 1955

Provenance :
Genevieve and Jean Paul Kahn Collection

Original print hand-signed by the artist in pencil lower left, monogrammed in the plate, annotated "Epreuve d'artiste" and dedicated "Pour Louis Broder".

This work is an extra large-margin edition of frontispiece 2 from the Eluard tribute book "un poème dans chaque livre", published in 1956 in an edition of 120 copies. The work shown here comes from the album known as "Album A", a separate edition of the book (20 copies). Like the book, each album contains 16 prints (including this work by Georges Braque), but they were printed in wide margins and, unlike the prints in the book, all signed or monogrammed by the artists. The album in our possession belonged to the publisher Louis BRODER. It differs from the others in that, in addition to the 16 large-margin illustrations, it is enriched by numerous other prints collected by the publisher throughout his collaboration with the artists on this book.

Georges Braque was an intellectual with a passion for poetry and music, and a friend of Paul Eluard, René Char and Erik Satie. Born on May 13, 1882 in Argenteuil, he was the first person to enter the Louvre in his lifetime. He studied to become a painter until 1905. In 1906, he discovered the Fauvism of Matisse and Derain, and found in this movement a way to move away from academicism and explore the unknown lands of color. On his return from a trip to l'Estaque, he discovered Cubism, which was to revolutionize the plastic rhythms of painting.

In 1922, he manifested a different approach to painting, based on specific themes. This was the third phase of his work, the thematic period. His ambition was to perfect his pictorial concepts to the very limit of their possibilities, and from these themes emerged fundamental works such as "Birds".

As was his wont from 1953 onwards, the artist multiplied references to the flight of birds in his works. As a tribute to Eluard, it's hardly surprising that Braque chose this etching entitled "Les colombes", in which he shows great sensitivity.