Among Georges Braque’s largest and most ambitious still lifes of the 1930s, Still Life with Fruits and Stringed Instrument features complex ornamentation and over-lapping, visually playful patterns that create rhythmic movement. An example of what Braque called “rhyming shapes” and “metamorphic confusion,” the round fruits on the table mimic the holes of stringed instruments, and the curving lines of the mandolin evoke a fruit bowl. “Echo answers to echo,” Braque once said, “everything reverberates”—even the work’s surface, which he enlivened with coarse sand.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Rosenberg and Helft, Recent Works of Braque, exh. cat. (London: Rosenberg and Helft, 1938), n.p. (cat. 22), as Nature Morte au Compotier, 1938.
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Exposition d’art français contemporain, exh. cat. (Brussels: Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1938), pp. 15 (cat. 21), 18, (ill.), as Guitare, compotier et vase, 1938.
Stedelijk Museum, Parijsche Schilders, exh. cat. (Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1939), n.p. (cat. 38, ill.), as Vruchten, glas en een mandoline, 1938.
“Living with the Great,” Vogue 120 (October 1, 1952), p. 119 (ill.), as Table and Fruit.
Cooper, Douglas, G. Braque, exh. cat. (London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1956), pp. 46 (cat. 74, pl. 8), 47, as Still-Life with Mandolin.
Worms de Romilly, Nicole, Catalogue de l’œuvre de Georges Braque, vol. 3, Peintures 1936-1941 (Paris: Maeght, 1961), n.p. (no. 32, ill.), as Nature Morte au Rouleau de Musique, 1936-38.
Leymarie, Jean, Braque (Geneva: Skira, 1961), pp. 84 (ill.), 85, 132, as Nature morte a la mandoline, 1938.
Richardson, John, G. Braque (Greenwich, Conn.; New York Graphic Society, 1961), n.p. (pl. 40, ill.), as Nature morte a la mandoline, 1938.
Miyagawa, Tadashi, Georges Braque (Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 1963), p. 51 (ill.).
Fumet, Stanislas, Braque (Paris: Maeght, 1965), p. 116 (ill.), 216, as Nature morte au rouleau de musique, 1938.
National Gallery of Art, One Hundred European Paintings & Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1967), n.p. (cat. 49, ill.), as Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1938.
Museum of Fine Arts, One Hundred European Paintings & Drawings from the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Leigh B. Block, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1967), n.p. (cat. 49, ill.), as Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1938.
Cogniat, Raymond, G. Braque (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Françaises, 1970), n.p. (no. 32, ill.), as Nature morte au rouleau de musique, 1936-1938.
Cooper, Douglas, Braque: The Great Years, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 1972), pp. 14 (pl. 10, ill.), 21 (cat. 21), 73 (fig. 53, ill.), as Still Life with a Mandolin, Fruit and a Roll of Paper on a Table, 1936-38.
Segui, Shinichi, Braque/Léger (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1972), p. 121 (fig. 25, ill.), as Nature morte au rouleau de musique, 1936-38.
Richet, Michèle and Nadine Pouillon, Georges Braque, exh. cat. (Paris: Ministère des affaires culturelles, Éditions des musées nationaux, 1973), pp. 43 (cat. 89), 44, 125 (ill.), as Nature morte à la mandoline, 1936-1938.
Cogniat, Raymond, Georges Braque, trans. By I. Mark Paris (New York: Abrams, 1980), cover (ill.).
Leymarie, Jean, Georges Braque, exh. cat. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1988), p. 28 (fig. 6, ill.), 29, as Still Life with a Mandolin, 1937-38.
Green, Christopher, The European Avant-Gardes: Art in France and Western Europe, 1904–c. 1945 (London: Zwemmer, 1995), p. 70 (fig. 1, ill.), as Still-life with a Mandolin, 1938.
Wood, James N. and Teri J. Edelstein, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth-Century Paintings and Sculpture (Chicago: Art Institute, 1996), p. 80 (ill.), as Still Life with Fruit and Stringed Instrument, 1938.
John Golding, “Cezanne, Braque, and Pictoral Space,” Cézanne and Beyond, Exh, cat (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009) Fig 9.7, pp. 226-267.
Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, “From One Spance into the Other,” Georges Braque: Pioneer of Modernism, Exh. cat. (Acquavella), p. 19, ill. 22, p. 23.
London, Rosenberg and Helft, Recent Works of Braque, June 13–July 13, 1938, n.p. (cat. 22), as Nature Morte au Compotier, 1938.
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Exposition d’art français contemporain, November 19–December 11, 1938, pp. 15 (cat. 21), 18, (ill.), as Guitare, compotier et vase, 1938.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Parijsche Schilders, February 24–April 10, 1939, n.p. (cat. 38, ill.), as Vruchten, glas en een mandoline, 1938.
Arts Council of Great Britain and Edinburgh Festival Society (organizer), G. Braque, pp. 46 (cat. 74), 47, n.p. (pl. 8, ill.), as Still-Life with Mandolin; shown in, Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, August 18–September 15, 1956, and London, Tate Gallery, September 28–November 11, 1956.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, One Hundred European Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, May 4–June 11, 1967, n.p. (cat. 49, ill.), as Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1938; traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 21–November 2, 1967; and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, February 2–April 14, 1968.
Chicago, Art Institute, Braque: The Great Years, October 7–December 3, 1972, pp. 14 (cat. 21, pl. 10, ill.), 21 (cat. 21), 73 (fig. 53, ill.), as Still Life with a Mandolin, Fruit and a Roll of Paper on a Table, 1936-38.
Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Georges Braque, October 16, 1973–January 14, 1974, pp. 43 (cat. 89), 44, 125 (ill.), as Nature morte à la mandoline, 1936-1938.
New York, Acquavella Galleries, Gerorges Braque: Pioneer of Modernism, October 12- November 30, 2011.
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no.
The artist; Paul Rosenberg and Company, New York [London 1938]; sold to Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Block, Chicago, Feb. 27, 1947 [Block stock card]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1988.
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