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Description: Painted in 1919. Signed G. Braque and dated 19 (on the reverse) Oil on canvas

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Dimensions: measurements 13 3/4 by 25 7/8 in. alternate measurements 35 by 65.7 cm

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Provenance: Neu Kunst Hans Goltz, Munich
Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin
Pierre Matisse, New York (acquired circa 1938-39)
Ruth McClymonds Maitland
Private Collection, acquired from the above in March 1939
Thence by descent to the present owner

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Exhibited:

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Published: George Isarlov, Georges Braque, Paris, 1932, no. 239, listed p. 21
Fritz Laufer, Braque, Bern, 1954, illustrated pl. 18
Galerie Maeght, ed., Catalogue de l'oeuvre de Georges Braque. Peintures 1916-1923, Paris, 1962, no. 61, illustrated

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Notes: After his service in the First World War, Braque returned to his art by 1917 with a renewed sense of exploration and possibility. While continuing the geometric abstraction of Cubism which he had invented with his colleague Picasso prior to the war, Braque began to create richer and more vivid surfaces for his paintings during this time. By priming his canvases with black ground, the artist created a dramatic contrast that outlines the subjects of his paintings. The still-lifes of this period in particular are punctuated by powerful contrasts that instill the inanimate objects with vibrant color. The present picture, Le Radical, painted in 1919, falls within this prolific and inventive period. Braque here translates a horizontal surface into a vertical field. Though the subject is expertly abstracted, the viewer is still able to visually reconstruct elements, such as a cluster of fruit, a patterned table surface, and the cover of Le Radical, the left-wing French periodical. In 1939, the gallery owner Pierre Matisse sent the present piece to Mrs. Maitland with the following note regarding its significance: "I have sent you the Braque still life I mentioned in my wire and I hope you will like it. It is the only example of that period, one of the very best, that I have found for a long time. The colors are cool and deep and there is gravity about the whole picture which is very satisfying. The composition is also quiet and pleasing. In all I think it is a picture that will hold and in which one will always find something new to enjoy" (Pierre Matisse, letter to Mrs. Maitland dated March 23, 1939).