Artist: Georges Braque (French, 1882-1963)
Title: La Table Ronde (The Round Table)
Medium: Vintage offset lithograph after the original painting.
Signature: Signed in the plate, lower right.
Dimensions: Image Size 7 1/8 x 9 inches.
Framed Dimensions: Approximately 16 x 18 inches.
Framing: This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.
Compositionally The Round Table is related to Braque’s large vertical still lifes from 1918 to 1919, when the common French pedestal table known as the guéridon first appeared in his paintings. With this work, Braque substantially expanded his color range, increased the scale of his canvases, experimented with textures and materials, and devised a more complex use of pictorial space. Pushing the table into the corner of the room, he creates an unusual perspective that presents multiple viewpoints at the same time. The result is a grand, luminous canvas in which oil has been mixed with sand over gesso to create a textured, fresco-like effect.
Georges Braque was a 20th century French painter who invented Cubism with Pablo Picasso. Along with Cubism, Braque used the styles of Impressionism, Fauvism and collage, and even staged designs for the Ballet Russes. Through his career, his style changed to portray somber subjects during wartime and lighter, freer themes in between. He never strayed far from Cubism, as there were always aspects of it in his works. Braque died on August 31, 1963, in Paris.