(after) Georges Braque

Les martinets (black swifts)

1959

Braque began his artistic career painting in a Fauvist style, strongly influenced by friends Raoul Dufy and Henri Matisse. In 1907, however, after befriending Pablo Picasso, Braque began focusing on Cubist compositions and a more muted color palette. He and Picasso would work closely until 1914 when Picasso began focusing on symbolism and portraiture, while Braque sought to explore “pure composition” void of meaning and symbolism. A 1922 exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in Paris launched Braque further into fame. He won several important prizes over the next few decades, including First Prize at the Carnegie International and the main prize for painting at the Venice Biennale. In 1961, Braque became the first living artist to ever have his work displayed at The Louvre. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Braque created many works featuring Greek and Roman mythological imagery such as this print, though his hope was to use the images simply as visual objects stripped of their histories, lore, and symbolism.