''Houses at l'Estaque'' (French: ''Maisons à l'Estaque'', or ''Maisons et arbre'') is an oil-on-canvas painting by

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with ...

executed in 1908. It is considered either an important Proto-Cubist landscapeGanteführer-Trier, Anne; Grosenick, Uta (2004). ''Cubism''

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt Taschen and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Tasch ...

9783822829585 or the first Cubist landscape.Kuiper, Kathleen (2009). ''The Britannica Guide to Theories and Ideas That Changed the Modern World.'' The Rosen Publishing Group, The painting prompted art critic

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

to mock it as being composed of cubes which led to the name of the movement.Chilvers, Ian; Glaves-Smith, John (2009). ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art.'' Oxford University Press, It is a response to works by

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

who also lived in

L'Estaque L'Estaque (; ) is a village in southern France, just west of Marseille. Administratively, it belongs to the commune in France, commune of Marseille. Overview Many artists of the Impressionism, Impressionist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impression ...

at times.Green, Christopher (2003). ''Art in France, 1900-1940.'' ''Yale University Press'',

History

This painting by Braque was refused at the Salon d'Automne in 1908.

Louis Vauxcelles Louis Vauxcelles (; born Louis Meyer; 1 January 187021 July 1943) was a French art critic. He is credited with coining the terms ''Fauvism'' (1905) and ''Cubism'' (1908). He used several pseudonyms in various publications: Pinturrichio, Vasari, ...

recounted how

told him at the time, "Braque has just sent in o the 1908 Salon d'Automnea painting made of little cubes".Alex Danchev, ''Georges Braques: A Life'', Arcade Publishing, 15 nov. 2005
/ref> The critic Charles Morice relayed Matisse's words and spoke of Braque's little cubes. The motif of the viaduct at l'Estaque had inspired Braque to produce three paintings marked by the simplification of form and deconstruction of perspective.''Futurism in Paris - The Avant-garde Explosion'', Pompidou Center, Paris 2008 Six landscapes painted at L'Estaque signed Georges Braque were presented to the Jury of the Salon d'Automne: Guérin,

Georges Rouault Georges-Henri Rouault (; 27 May 1871, Paris - 13 February 1958, Paris) was a French painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, whose work is often associated with Fauvism and Expressionism. Childhood and education Rouault was born into a poor famil ...

, and Matisse rejected Braque's entire submission. Guérin and

Albert Marquet Albert Marquet (; 27 March 1875 – 14 June 1947) was a French painter. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. Marquet subsequently painted in a more naturalistic style, primarily landscapes, bu ...

elected to keep two in play. Braque withdrew the two in protest, placing the blame on Matisse. ''Houses at l'Estaque'' is a Proto-Cubist painting consisting both of Cézannian trees and houses depicted in the absence of any unifying perspective. Houses in the background do, however, appear smaller than those of the foreground, consistent with classical perspective. Following the rejection of Braque's paintings,

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (25 June 1884 – 11 January 1979) was a German-born art collector, and one of the most notable French art dealers of the 20th century. He became prominent as an art gallery owner in Paris beginning in 1907 and was among ...

offered the artist a

one-person show A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show, one-woman show, or one-person show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieti ...

at his gallery on a small street situated behind

La Madeleine, Paris The Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (, ), or less formally, La Madeleine (), is a Catholic parish church on Place de la Madeleine in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was planned by Louis XV as the focal point of the new Rue Royal, leading t ...

. Guillame Apollinaire wrote of the paintings exhibited nothing about cubes, but mentions "the synthetic motifs he paints" and that he "no longer owes anything to his surroundings". It was Vauxcelles who called Braque a daring man who despises form, "reducing everything, places and a figures and houses, to geometric schemas, to cubes".

References

External links

''Houses at L'Estaque''
via georgesbraque.org
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, ''Der Weg zum Kubismus'', published 1920 by Delphin in München. Written in German. Title: ''Haus in l’Estaque''. Dated 1908. Cit. n° 18, p. 61.
{{Georges Braque 1908 paintings Paintings by Georges Braque Paintings in Lille Oil on canvas paintings Landscape paintings

History

See also

References

External links