Road near L'Estaque
Georges Braque. Road near L'Estaque. L'Estaque, late summer 1908. Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 x 19 3/4" (60.3 x 50.2 cm). Given anonymously (by exchange). © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Georges Braque. Road near L'Estaque. L'Estaque, late summer 1908. Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 x 19 3/4" (60.3 x 50.2 cm). Given anonymously (by exchange). © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Before Braque began painting the landscape of L'Estaque, in southern France, the town had been a favorite subject for Paul Cézanne, whose 1907 memorial exhibition in Paris had a great impact on the younger artist. This painting makes visible Cézanne's influence on Braque's developing later Cubist style. Braque employs Cézanne's progressive gradations of color and flattened, inaccessible spaces. As Cézanne often did, Braque left an area of canvas unpainted, in the limb of a tree. Road near L'Estaque looks forward to Cubism in its significantly restricted palette of colors, crowded space, and sharp geometric forms.