Artist: Georges Braque (1882-1963)

Title: “Les Etoiles (Stars)”

Year: c.1959

Medium: original color lithograph after the watercolor, on Rives Paper

Publisher: Maeght, Paris (bears Maeght blindstamp in lower left corner)

Reference: Maeght/Vallier #1029

Image size: 14 x 12.5”

Sight/Sheet size: 17.5 x 22”

Framed size: 25 x 29”

Edition: 33/300

Signature: Hand signed by Georges Braque in pencil in the lower right margin; numbered on the left. The lithograph is in good condition with bold colors and full margins, in it’s original vintage frame. Shipping unframed is also an option. Braque was known for his bird paintings and thus is a beautiful example of the master’s work. This lithograph was also used as a cover image for “Derrière Le Miroir” in 1959.

Guaranteed authentic and accompanied with a certificate of authenticity (COA) with an appraised value of $9,500. There is one gallery that is currently offering their impression for $10,000. I have been working with Braque original etchings and lithographs for over 15 years, please contact me with any questions, thank you.

Discussion: “Georges Braque Les Étoiles (Stars), 1959 opens a cloud-like window into a dreamy black and navy sky peppered with playful stars above which a bird, its body decorated with patterns, flies with its wings spread. The darkness of the sky around it contrasts strikingly with the light color of the bird, and the edges of its body create beautiful sharp outlines and negative space. There is a rich variation of textures, from the speckled flow of the blue pigment to the crisp stars on smooth black. Within a soothing circular composition, Braque creates a deep magical world that beckons the viewer in. There is an incredible charm to the simplicity of the bird’s form and the kaleidoscopic patterns ornamenting its body. Birds were a reoccurring subject matter in Braque’s work, a symbol of peace and tranquility; in Les Étoiles, the bird is particularly eye-catching. As it travels through a gorgeous dark sky, we get the sense of peering into a portal which reveals another realm, created masterfully by Braque’s vision. Created in 1959, this color lithograph is hand signed by Georges Braque (Argenteuil, Val-d’Oise, 1882 – Paris, 1963) in pencil the lower right and numbered from an edition of 300 in the lower left. Published by Maeght, this color lithograph was created after an original watercolor by Georges Braque from the same year that was exhibited in Galerie Maeght.”(-From Masterworks Fine Art)

Biography:

Georges Braque was born in Argenteuil, Val-d'Oise. He grew up in Le Havre and trained to be a house painter and decorator like his father and grandfather. However, he also studied serious painting in the evenings at the École des Beaux-Arts, in Le Havre, from about 1897 to 1899. In Paris, he apprenticed with a decorator and was awarded his certificate in 1902. The following year, he attended the Académie Humbert, also in Paris, and painted there until 1904. It was here that he met Marie Laurencin and Francis Picabia.

His earliest works were impressionistic, but after seeing the work exhibited by the Fauves in 1905, Braque adopted a Fauvist style. The Fauves, a group that included Henri Matisse and André Derain among others, used brilliant colors and loose structures of forms to capture the most intense emotional response. Braque worked most closely with the artists Raoul Dufy and Othon Friesz, who shared Braque's hometown of Le Havre, to develop a somewhat more subdued Fauvist style. In 1906, Braque traveled with Friesz to L'Estaque, to Antwerp, and home to Le Havre to paint.

In May 1907, he successfully exhibited works in the Fauve style in the Salon des Indépendants. The same year, Braque's style began a slow evolution as he came under the strong influence of Paul Cézanne, who died in 1906, and whose works were exhibited in Paris for the first time in a large-scale, museum-like retrospective in September 1907. The 1907 Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne greatly impacted the direction that the avant-garde in Paris took, leading to the advent of Cubism.

Braque's paintings of 1908–1913 began to reflect his new interest in geometry and simultaneous perspective. He conducted an intense study of the effects of light and perspective and the technical means that painters use to represent these effects, appearing to question the most standard of artistic conventions. In his village scenes, for example, Braque frequently reduced an architectural structure to a geometric form approximating a cube, yet rendered its shading so that it looked both flat and three-dimensional by fragmenting the image. He showed this in the oil painting "House at L'estaque". In this way, Braque called attention to the very nature of visual illusion and artistic representation.

Braque Biography: “Beginning in 1909, Braque began to work closely with Pablo Picasso, who had been developing a similar approach to oil painting. At the time Pablo Picasso was influenced by Gauguin, Cézanne, African tribal masks and Iberian sculpture, while Braque was mostly interested in developing Cézanne's idea's of multiple perspectives. A comparison of the works off Picasso and Braque during 1908 reveals that the effect of his encounter with Picasso was more to accelerate and intensify Braque's exploration of Cézanne’ ideas, rather than to divert his thinking in any essential way. The invention of Cubism was a joint effort between Picasso and Braque, then residents of Montmartre, Paris. These artists were the movement's main innovators. After meeting in October or November 1907, Braque and Picasso, in particular, began working on the development of Cubism in 1908. Both artists produced paintings of monochromatic color and complex patterns of faceted form, now called Analytic Cubism.

A decisive moment in its development occurred during the summer of 1911, when Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso painted side by side in Céret, in the French Pyrenees, each artist producing paintings that are difficult - sometimes virtually impossible - to distinguish from those of the other. In 1912, they began to experiment with collage and papier collé.

Their productive collaboration continued and they worked closely together until the outbreak of World War I in 1914 when Braque enlisted in the French Army, leaving Paris to fight in the First World War.

French art critic Louis Vauxcelles first used the term Cubism, or "bizarre cubiques", in 1908 after seeing a picture by Braque. He described it as 'full of little cubes', after which the term quickly gained wide use although the two creators did not initially adopt it. Art historian Ernst Gombrich described cubism as "the most radical attempt to stamp out ambiguity and to enforce one reading of the picture - that of a man-made construction, a colored canvas." The Cubist movement spread quickly throughout Paris and Europe.

Braque was severely wounded in the war, and when he resumed his artistic career in 1917 he moved away from the harsher abstraction of cubism. Working alone, he developed a more personal style, characterized by brilliant color and textured surfaces and following his move to the Normandy seacoast the reappearance of the human figure. He painted many still life subjects during this time, maintaining his emphasis on structure. During his recovery he became a close friend of the cubist artist Juan Gris.

He continued to work throughout the remainder of his life, producing a considerable number of distinguished oil paintings, graphics, and sculptures, all imbued with a pervasive contemplative quality. Braque, along with Matisse, is credited for introducing Pablo Picasso to Fernand Mourlot, and most of the lithographs and book illustrations he himself created in the 1940s and '50s were produced at the Mourlot Studios. He died on 31 August 1963, in Paris. He is buried in the church cemetery in Saint-Marguerite-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. Braque's work is in most major museums throughout the world. (-From GeorgesBraque.org)

About the seller: Aside from being a professional artist, I have been working with original works on paper by 19th and 20th century modern and contemporary masters since 2004, with a focus on the great Salvador Dali. Regarding my fine art background and expertise, I take great pride in any original work on paper that I represent. The fine art world can be overwhelming and there are a lot of false experts, my goal has always been with educating the buyer. I have learned a lot in my nearly 20 years of working with fine art masters, as well as many highly reputable galleries and private dealers. All items I sell have been extensively researched, documented in the official catalogue raisonnes of the artists when applicable, and I provide a signed lifetime guarantee/ certificate of authenticity of the fine art I sell, legally binding me to my word. I stay away from dubious works of art, and if there is a concern I am unaware of I fortunately know the right people to ask. In 2000 after high school I moved from Connecticut to attend the George Washington University and was curator for Galerie Lareuse with expert Jean-Michel Lareuse for 11 years in Georgetown; member of the IFPDA (International Fine Print Dealers Association) specializing in original works on paper by 19th & 20th century masters such as Picasso, Dali, Chagall, Miro, Braque, Renoir, Leger, Matisse, Magritte, Kandinsky, Buffet, Dufy, Lautrec, Calder, Cassatt, Delaunay, Haring, Warhol, Degas, and many others. I oversaw and personally handled hundreds of original works on paper and was tasked with extensive research, appraisals, sales, certification, private acquisitions, as well as museum-quality professional framing. I assisted with transactions involving many prestigious museums and organizations, including a 2006 sale via Galerie Lareuse of Picasso's rare 1912 etching "Nature Morte, Bouteille" to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, a 2011 sale of Vincent van Gogh's very rare c.1890 etching "Portrait of Dr. Gachet", and a 2012 sale of a unique original gouache drawing by Sonia Delaunay which is now located in The Phillips Collection. I also assisted in the art estate of the late and great Eunice Shriver, and many other private collections in the DC area. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me as I am here to help! Kind regards, Kreg