Braque, Georges (1882-1963)
Grand Nu (Large Nude)
1907–1908
Oil on canvas, 140 × 100 cm
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris
By virtue of its subject, its dimensions and its audacity, this work constitutes an essential milestone in the birth of Cubism.
Georges Braque‘s visit to Pablo Picasso‘s studio in 1907, when the latter was working on Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907, New York, Museum of Modern Art), confirmed his own research into the treatment of space with volume and planes. Also inspired by Paul Cézanne‘s Bathers and the Nu bleu painted by Matisse (1907, Baltimore, Museum of Art), Braque revealed this monumental nude with its deformed anatomy and mask-like face. (Centre Pompidou)