The Le Havre house-painter's son who invented Cubism in Montmartre with the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso between 1908 and 1914 — the quieter half of the most consequential partnership in modern art — and who invented papier collé, the pasted-paper picture, in September 1912. He was given a French state funeral in 1963.
Georges Braque is the other name on Cubism, the movement that broke painting's single fixed viewpoint and rebuilt the visible world out of facets and planes. He and Pablo Picasso made it together in Paris between 1908 and 1914, working so closely that their canvases of 1911 are hard to tell apart — Braque later described the years as two mountaineers roped together on a climb. He came to it from an unlikely training: his father and grandfather were house painters and decorators in Le Havre, and the boy was apprenticed to the trade, learning to fake wood grain and marble with a brush and to letter a shopfront. Those tricks of the trade walked straight into modern art.
The partnership ended on 2 August 1914, when Braque was mobilised for the First World War; he took a head wound in 1915 that required trepanning — surgery to open the skull — and kept him from painting for two years. He came back and worked for another four decades — still lifes; the Canéphores, his monumental basket-carrying women; the Ateliers, the great series painted in his own studio; and the birds that became his signature late motif. In 1961 the Louvre hung an exhibition of his work while he was still alive, a distinction almost no artist has been given, and when he died in 1963 the French Republic buried him at the state's expense, with the Minister of Culture André Malraux delivering the oration in the courtyard of the Louvre.
Braque was born on 13 May 1882 at Argenteuil, the town on the Seine northwest of Paris where the Impressionists — the painters of light and open air — had painted their sailboats a decade earlier, and grew up in Le Havre, the Channel port where his father ran the family house-painting and decorating business. He took evening classes at the École des Beaux-Arts, the fine-arts school in Le Havre, from 1897 to 1899, then trained formally as a peintre-décorateur — a painter-decorator, the family trade — under a master craftsman, and earned his craftsman's certificate in 1901. The apprenticeship taught him faux bois and faux marbre, the painted imitation of oak grain and marble veining used on doors and skirting boards, along with signwriting and the combs and brushes that produce them. No other founder of modern art arrived with a tradesman's toolkit, and none of it went to waste.
He moved to Paris to paint, took a studio in Montmartre — the hill in the north of the city where rent was cheap and half the avant-garde lived — and by 1906 had joined the Fauves, the group around the painter Henri Matisse whose name means "wild beasts" and whose method was to use colour at maximum intensity with no obligation to describe anything. Braque painted the harbour at Antwerp and the coast at L'Estaque near Marseille in violent orange and violet. It lasted about two years.
What ended it was Paul Cézanne. The Salon d'Automne — the big annual Paris exhibition of new art, run outside the official academy — mounted a large Cézanne retrospective in 1907, the year after the painter's death, and it reorganised Braque's mind. Cézanne had spent his last decades building landscapes out of shifting planes rather than copying what a single eye sees from a single spot. Braque went back to L'Estaque, where Cézanne had worked, and in June 1908 painted the place again — not in Fauve colour this time but, as the Centre Pompidou's dossier on the resulting picture puts it, as "a compressed, radically reduced vision of the landscape": arches, cubes, edges and angles, the houses stacked up the canvas with the sky squeezed out.
The Salon d'Automne refused the L'Estaque paintings. Instead the young German dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who had opened a tiny gallery on the rue Vignon the year before, showed them in November 1908 in what the Pompidou calls "the official beginnings of Cubism" — with a catalogue preface by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who wrote that Braque's spirit "intentionally provoked the twilight of reality." The critic Louis Vauxcelles, reviewing it, complained that Braque reduced everything to cubes. The word stuck and became the movement's name, which is a common fate for the labels of modern art: Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism were all originally sneers.
Kahnweiler had by then introduced Braque to Pablo Picasso, and from 1908 the two worked in near-daily contact across Montmartre, visiting each other's studios, arguing, and — most unusually for painters of their ambition — subordinating personal style to a shared problem. By 1911 their canvases are so alike that specialists still occasionally disagree about attributions. Braque's phrase for it was that they were like two mountaineers roped together, each holding the other's weight on the way up.
What they did divides into two halves. Analytic Cubism, roughly 1909 to 1912, took the object apart: a violin, a bottle, a face broken into small overlapping facets seen from several angles at once and painted in near-monochrome browns and greys, so the subject nearly dissolves but never quite disappears. Synthetic Cubism, from 1912, did the reverse — instead of dismantling a thing, it built one up out of flat pieces and signs, with pasted paper, stencilled letters, brighter colour and larger shapes, in a picture that admits it is a flat surface rather than pretending to be a window.
The second half of that story starts with Braque alone. In the very first days of September 1912, at Sorgues near Avignon in the south of France, he noticed in a paint-merchant's window a roll of papier faux bois — the cheap wallpaper printed to imitate oak grain that any decorator of his training knew intimately. He bought it, cut it up, and pasted it into a drawing. That was papier collé, "pasted paper": the invention is his, and it is the moment collage entered serious painting.
It solved a real problem. Analytic Cubism had grown so hermetic — so nearly colourless and so hard to read — that it was running out of air, and a strip of fake oak reintroduced both material and colour without anyone having to pretend the canvas was a window again. Picasso saw the first ones and wrote to Braque that he was helping himself: "I am using your latest paper methods." By 1914 Braque was making his own decorated papers, flecking mechanically coloured sheets with dots of gouache — an opaque watercolour paint — so that painted colour returned through the back door. A contract signed with Kahnweiler on 30 November 1912 fixed the terms on which the dealer took the output.
Braque was called up as a sergeant in August 1914 and went to the front; Picasso, a Spanish national, stayed in Paris. In May 1915, at Carency in the Artois region of northern France, Braque took a severe head wound, was left for dead on the field, and underwent trepanning — the surgical opening of the skull. He was blind for a period and did not paint again until 1917. The partnership never resumed, and the friendship cooled; the two men had made an art together that neither made again alone.
What followed was forty-six years of steady, deepening, unfashionable work: still lifes on tables, the Canéphores — monumental basket-bearing women — of the 1920s, the Billiard Tables of the 1940s, and above all the eight great Ateliers of 1949 to 1956, paintings of his own studio in which objects, easels and a white bird float in a dense grey-green space. He worked between Paris and a house he built at Varengeville on the Normandy coast, stayed in Paris through the German occupation, and in 1948 won the grand prize for painting at the Venice Biennale, the great international art exhibition.
The birds took over. They begin in the Ateliers and become a subject in their own right, and in 1953 Braque painted them onto the ceiling of the Salle Henri II in the Musée du Louvre — a living artist added to the fabric of the building that houses the French national collection. In 1961 the Louvre went further and hung an exhibition of his work while he was alive, the first time the museum had done so for a living painter. He also made designs for the Fondation Maeght, the private art foundation at Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the south of France, which opened the year after his death.
He was eighty when he began La Sarcleuse, a Normandy wheat field with a weeding hoe in it; the Centre Pompidou, which owns the painting, describes it as "Braque's last great painting — still on the easel on the day of his death, 31 August 1963." France gave him a state funeral. The coffin lay in the Cour Carrée, the great square courtyard of the Louvre, and André Malraux, the novelist serving as Charles de Gaulle's Minister of Culture, gave the oration at night before the lit façades. It is an unlikely end for a decorator's apprentice from Le Havre who once bought a roll of imitation-oak wallpaper because he liked the way it lied.
Born on 13 May at Argenteuil, on the Seine northwest of Paris.
Evening classes at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre, where his father runs the family house-painting business, then training under a master craftsman; he qualifies as a peintre-décorateur in 1901, having learned to paint fake wood grain and marble.
Joins the Fauves, painting the harbours of Antwerp and L'Estaque in unmixed colour.
The Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne redirects him; he returns to L'Estaque to paint the landscape as stacked planes.
The Salon d'Automne refuses his L'Estaque paintings; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler shows them in November, with a preface by Guillaume Apollinaire — the official beginnings of Cubism. The critic Louis Vauxcelles complains of "cubes."
Works alongside Pablo Picasso in Montmartre, the two so close that by 1911 their canvases are barely distinguishable.
In the first days of September, at Sorgues near Avignon, he buys a roll of imitation-oak wallpaper and pastes it into a drawing — the invention of papier collé. Kahnweiler contracts for his work on 30 November.
Mobilised in August; the partnership with Picasso ends with the war.
Severely wounded in the head at Carency and trepanned; he does not paint again until 1917.
Wins the grand prize for painting at the Venice Biennale.
Paints the eight Ateliers, the great late series set in his own studio, out of which the bird emerges as his signature motif.
Paints the birds on the ceiling of the Salle Henri II at the Louvre.
The Louvre exhibits his work while he is alive — a distinction the museum had not previously given a living painter.
Dies in Paris on 31 August, his last great canvas La Sarcleuse still on the easel. France gives him a state funeral in the Cour Carrée of the Louvre, with an oration by André Malraux.
Collaborated with · 1908–1914
They invented Cubism together in Montmartre, in near-daily contact and deliberately holding back personal style in favour of a shared problem; by 1911 their canvases are so alike that attributions are still occasionally disputed. Braque's image for the years was two mountaineers roped together. Braque's mobilisation in August 1914 ended it, and neither man worked that way again.
Supported by · 1908–1914
When the Salon d'Automne refused Braque's L'Estaque landscapes, Kahnweiler showed them at his rue Vignon gallery in November 1908 — the exhibition the Centre Pompidou calls the official beginnings of Cubism — with a catalogue preface by Guillaume Apollinaire. A contract of 30 November 1912 fixed the terms on which the dealer took his output. Kahnweiler had also introduced Braque to Picasso.
Met · 1908
Apollinaire wrote the preface to the catalogue of Braque's November 1908 exhibition at Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's gallery, the show that launched Cubism, declaring that Braque's spirit "intentionally provoked the twilight of reality." The source records the preface rather than a meeting; writing it for a young painter's first solo show is taken here as evidence they knew each other, and both moved in the same Montmartre circle around Picasso.
The Cézanne retrospective at the 1907 Salon d'Automne, the year after the painter's death, sent Braque back to L'Estaque — where Cézanne had worked — to paint the landscape as compressed, stacked planes rather than as a view. The pictures that came out of it are the first Cubist paintings.
Art movement · 1907–1914
Co-founder. The landscapes he painted at L'Estaque in June 1908 — refused by the Salon d'Automne and shown instead by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler that November — are what the Centre Pompidou calls the official beginnings of Cubism, and the critic Louis Vauxcelles's complaint about their "cubes" gave the movement its name. Papier collé, the pasted-paper picture that opened Synthetic Cubism, is his invention of September 1912.
A French painter, born in 1882 and dead in 1963, who created Cubism together with Pablo Picasso in Paris between 1908 and 1914 — the movement that abandoned the single fixed viewpoint and rebuilt objects out of overlapping planes. He invented papier collé, the pasted-paper picture, in 1912. After a near-fatal head wound in the First World War he worked on alone for more than forty years, ending with the studio interiors and birds that are his late signature.
Both, together, and the question misses how they worked. From 1908 to 1914 they were in near-daily contact in Montmartre, deliberately holding back personal style in favour of a shared problem, and by 1911 their canvases are so alike that experts still argue over attributions. Braque's own image for the years was two mountaineers roped together on a climb. The specific inventions can be assigned — the 1908 L'Estaque landscapes that got the movement its name are Braque's, papier collé is Braque's, and the movement's other founding canvas, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, is Picasso's — but the movement is not divisible.
Papier collé — French for "pasted paper" — is a picture built from pieces of paper glued to the support rather than painted. Braque invented it in the first days of September 1912 at Sorgues near Avignon, when he saw a roll of wallpaper printed to imitate oak grain in a paint shop window, bought it, and cut it into a drawing. It was a solution to a problem: Cubism had grown so nearly colourless and so hard to read that a strip of fake oak brought material and colour back into the picture. Picasso adopted it immediately, writing to Braque that he was using his "latest paper methods."
Analytic Cubism, roughly 1909 to 1912, takes an object apart: a violin or a face is broken into small overlapping facets shown from several angles at once, in near-monochrome browns and greys, until the subject almost dissolves. Synthetic Cubism, from 1912 onward, builds an object up instead, assembling it from flat shapes and signs — pasted paper, stencilled letters, brighter colour, larger forms — in a picture that admits it is a flat surface.
Partly temperament and partly the war. Picasso changed styles restlessly for seventy years, courted attention, and lived until 1973; Braque was mobilised in 1914, took a head wound at Carency in 1915 that required his skull to be opened, and did not paint again until 1917. He never resumed the partnership, worked quietly for another four decades on a narrowing range of subjects, and disliked publicity. France knew what it had: the Louvre exhibited him while he was alive in 1961, and buried him at the state's expense in 1963.
The ceiling of the Salle Henri II, in 1953 — three panels of birds against a dark ground. It is one of the few twentieth-century additions to the decoration of the palace itself, and it made him a living artist installed in the building that holds the French national collection. The birds had emerged from his Ateliers series and became the motif of his last decade.
The Centre Pompidou holds the largest public collection of his paintings, including the 1908 L'Estaque landscape that helped name Cubism, the papiers collés of 1912–14, and La Sarcleuse, the canvas still on his easel when he died. The Louvre keeps his 1953 ceiling in the Salle Henri II, and the Musée de l'Orangerie and the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris hold further works.
Associated with · 1908–1914
Co-founder. The landscapes he painted at L'Estaque in June 1908 — refused by the Salon d'Automne and shown instead by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler that November — are what the Centre Pompidou calls the official beginnings of Cubism, and the critic Louis Vauxcelles's complaint about their "cubes" gave the movement its name. Papier collé, the pasted-paper picture that opened Synthetic Cubism, is his invention of September 1912.
Collaborated with · 1908–1914
They invented Cubism together in Montmartre, in near-daily contact and deliberately holding back personal style in favour of a shared problem; by 1911 their canvases are so alike that attributions are still occasionally disputed. Braque's image for the years was two mountaineers roped together. Braque's mobilisation in August 1914 ended it, and neither man worked that way again.
Supported by · 1908–1914
When the Salon d'Automne refused Braque's L'Estaque landscapes, Kahnweiler showed them at his rue Vignon gallery in November 1908 — the exhibition the Centre Pompidou calls the official beginnings of Cubism — with a catalogue preface by Guillaume Apollinaire. A contract of 30 November 1912 fixed the terms on which the dealer took his output. Kahnweiler had also introduced Braque to Picasso.
Met · 1908
Apollinaire wrote the preface to the catalogue of Braque's November 1908 exhibition at Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's gallery, the show that launched Cubism, declaring that Braque's spirit "intentionally provoked the twilight of reality." The source records the preface rather than a meeting; writing it for a young painter's first solo show is taken here as evidence they knew each other, and both moved in the same Montmartre circle around Picasso.
Influenced by · 1907–1908
The Cézanne retrospective at the 1907 Salon d'Automne, the year after the painter's death, sent Braque back to L'Estaque — where Cézanne had worked — to paint the landscape as compressed, stacked planes rather than as a view. The pictures that came out of it are the first Cubist paintings.
The sources below include biographies, scholarly essays, interviews, and primary materials that informed this page. They reflect both the historical record and ongoing critical conversations about Georges Braque and their work.
Museum artist record: dates, Le Havre training, Fauvism, the Picasso partnership, war injury, late themes.
Collection dossier on the 1908 L'Estaque landscape, the Salon d'Automne refusal and Kahnweiler's November 1908 exhibition.
Collection dossier on papier collé — the September 1912 discovery at Sorgues and the 30 November 1912 Kahnweiler contract.
Collection dossier on the last major painting, on the easel at his death.
Standard English-language biography.
These references anchor the page in the documented record and in the scholarly conversations around Georges Braque. Every claim on this page traces back to one or more of the works listed here.
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