Georges Braque was a French Cubist painter and sculptor. He is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Braque pioneered a revolutionary method of spatial organisation that profoundly influenced the visual arts.
In 1922, Braque paid a short visit to the United States, where he attended an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. There he saw a painting by Picasso and was very impressed by it
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In his words "I had never seen anything so beautiful."
He returned to Paris and became a close friend of Picasso, who had already become a mentor to him.
Braque was a brilliant draughtsman and created some of the best-known designs for posters, advertisements and film sets that were based on his work as a designer for various French magazines from 1924 onward.
In 1926 he painted his first Cubist works, after the leaded windows of his studio had been replaced with windows without leaden panes.
He continued to produce Cubist paintings throughout his life, but by 1929 he had settled on a less radical form of Cubism – applying geometric shapes to more traditional themes – as an antidote to what he saw as the superficiality and shallowness of art that prevailed at that time.
His last major work, Le Chant du Styrène (The Song of the Bamboo Flute), was completed in 1932 and depicts a bamboo flute emerging from a riotous jungle of branches and foliage, along with two figures whose identities remain unknown. The painting has been praised as "a mystical vision of nature…a creative achievement…a creative revelation".
In 1943 Braque joined fellow exiles in France during World War II, working on behalf of the French Resistance and later on creating war propaganda posters for British propaganda films. After the war, he became reclusive and was seldom seen in public until his death in 1963 at age 84. He was interred within this family tomb at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
