Born on May 13, 1882 in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, France, the artist studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre from 1897 to 1899. After moving to Paris, he continued his studies at the Académie Humbert, where he fell into the milieu of artists that included Francis Picabia and Marie Laurencin. Rapidly transitioning from Impressionism to Fauvism, Braque was already an avant-garde painter before meeting Picasso. In 1907, Braque visited Picasso’s studio where he first saw the Spanish artist’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, inspired by the work’s fractured perspective and rudimentary brushstrokes he began incorporating its stylistic qualities into his own practice. As his career progressed, his subject matter became more recognizable and his palette lightened while retaining the abstract dynamism of his early-Cubist works. Braque died on August 31, 1963 in Paris, France at the age of 81. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others.
Courtesy of artnet.com