DescriptionFollowing in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather, who had been house painters, Braque left Le Havre for Paris in 1900 to be apprenticed to a painter/decorator. The technical knowledge he acquired would serve him throughout his career. In his painting, he abandoned a conventional, realist mode to briefly embrace Fauvism. Shortly afterward he discovered the work of Paul Cézanne, which he studied thoroughly and greatly admired. In autumn 1907 Braque met Picasso and was astounded by his large canvas "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." By the end of summer 1908, which he spent at L'Estaque, Braque was painting starkly abstracted landscapes that revealed the influence of Cézanne. These works, simplified into the geometric forms whose planes are linked to one another, might be called the first Cubist paintings. They, in turn, influenced Picasso. By winter 1908–09 Braque and Picasso were inseparable, and their joint invention of Cubism is legendary (1909–14). Braque is credited as the first to incorporate collage elements into Cubist pictures (ca. 1911–12).

During the most abstract phase of Cubism — also referred to as "High" Analytic Cubism (1910–12) — Picasso and Braque continually broke down forms in their works. Consequently, their compositions consisted mainly of large abstract planes and small faceted ones, along with arcs, angles, and lines. The sober palette of grays, browns, and blacks — some opaque, some not — enabled the planes to overlap and merge with one another in a shallow relieflike space, as they do in this masterful small "High" Analytic still life.

Some tenuous links with reality survive when images of naturalistic objects, or parts of them, are incorporated into the composition. Here, the thick slab of wood of the table's corner juts in a wide angle into the lower center of the image. Farther back appears the saucerlike base of the brass candlestick. To the right of the candlestick float the two playing cards of the title: the ace of hearts and the six of diamonds.

In Cubist compositions, forms usually concentrate in the center, leaving the corners of such works rather empty. To avoid this, Picasso and Braque often favored oval canvases, as here, in one of Braque's first uses of the format.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsSignature: [on reverse]: Braque

Provenancethe artist Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, c. 1958-? Collection of André Lefevre, Paris Galerie Percier, Paris Peter A. Rübel Collection, New York Perls Galleries, New York, until 1997

Selected Exhibition HistoryNew York: Saidenberg Gallery, Georges Braque: An American Tribute, 7 April - 2 May, 1964, cat. no. 16, ill.

New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, Three Generations, 6 November- 26 December 1964,
cat. no. 3, illustrated.

St. Paul-de-Vence: Fondation Maeght, Georges Braque, 5 July - 30 September 1980,
cat. no. 33 (not ill.)

Nagoya, Japan: Nagoya City Art Museum, Perspectives of 20th Century Paintings, April 23-June19, 1988, cat. no. 52, illustrated in color, p. 99

New York: Museum of Modern Art, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism,
September 201989-January 16, 1990, ill. p. 174.

Martigny: Fondation Pierre Giannada, G. Braque, June 13-October 25, 1992, cat. no. 18, illustrated in color, p. 6.

St. Paul-de-Vence: Fondation Maeght, Georges Braque, July 5-October 15, 1994,
cat. no. 28.

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Painters in Paris 1895-1950, March 8 -
December 31, 2000, p. 68, illustrated in color

Kyoto,Japan: Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, September 14-November 24, 2002; Tokyo: The Bunkamura Museum of Art, December 7, 2000 - March 9, 2003, Picasso and the School of Paris, Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. plate 14, p. 58, illus. in color.

Selected BibliographyCahiers d'Art, Paris, nos. 1-2, 1933, p. 17 (issue devoted to Georges Braque)

Cogniat, Raymond. G. Braque, Paris, 1976, illustrated p. 58

Einstein, Carl. Georges Braque XXe Siecle, Paris, 1934 (Transl by M.E. Zipruth)
illustrated, pl. VI.

Fumet, Stanislas. Georges Braque, Paris, 1965, illustrated p. 30

Kahnweiler, Daniel H. Der Weg zum Kubismus, Stuttgart, 1958, illustrated, p. 55

Karmel, Joseph Low (Pepe Karmel). Picasso’s Laboratory: The Role of his Drawings in the Development of Cubism, 1910-14 (PhD dissertation, New York University, Institute of Fine Arts), 1993. Discussed in volume 3, “Appendix I: Datings of the Figures", pp. 371-373, 437-438 (footnotes 10-16); Illustrated b & w in volume 4, fig. 28 (Candlestick and Playing Cards, Paris, spring 1910, collection Mr. and Mrs. Klaus Perls)

Prat, Jean-Louis. G. Braque, Fondation Pierre Giannada, Martigny, 1992, cat. no. 18,
p.64, illustrated in color, p. 65

Rubin, William. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism, New York: The Museum of
Modern Art, 1989, ill. p. 174

Seuphor, Michel. L'Art abstrait, ses origines, ses premiers maitres, Paris, 1950,
illustrated, p. 136

Valsecchi, Mario and Carra, Massima. Tout l'oeuvre peint du Braque 1908-1929,
Milan, 1971; Paris, 1973, no. 60, illustrated p. 30.

Worms de Romilly, Nicole and Laude, Jean. Braque: Cubism 1907-1914, Paris, 1982,
no. 64, illustrated