Visiting The Met? The Temple of Dendur will be closed Sunday, April 27 through Friday, May 9. The Met Fifth Avenue will be closed Monday, May 5.

Learn more
Oil painting which imitates layered paper and rum labels with red and blue dots throughout

Georges Braque's Bottle of Rum, 1914

Scholars discovered new aspects of this painting using transmitted light to expose paint layers and density changes in the canvas.

Oil painting which imitates layered paper and rum labels with red and blue dots throughout


Georges Braque (1882–1963), Bottle of Rum, 1914. Oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 21 5/8 in. (46 x 54.9 cm). Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Transmitted light—the practice by which a light source is placed behind a work of art—sometimes exposes changes in the density of the canvas and paint layers. Such an examination of Georges Braque's Bottle of Rum revealed major compositional changes, some of which are barely noticeable to the naked eye. The most dramatic example is in the area of the painted letters at bottom center (fig. 1). Braque initially depicted a newspaper masthead in serif font letters: "LE PET" (the first part of "Le Petit Provençal") in a different orientation.

Transmitted light also exposed numerous pinholes throughout the painting. Braque used cut-out paper shapes to plan the composition of Bottle of Rum, pinning them directly to the canvas. In certain areas, repeated pinholes indicate that Braque adjusted the shapes' placement. Some, but not all, of the holes appear at logical anchor points that correspond to the final placement of the painted forms. A number of holes are filled with paint, while others are open, indicating that Braque pinned papers on top of the final paint layer and thus may have contemplated further changes to the composition.

Additional examination with infrared reflectography showed that Braque initially depicted the elements of this still life on an oval table, a pictorial convention he used in other works from this period.

“Bottle of Rum” seen in orange and black tones through infrared light showing pinholes in the painting and the letters “Le Pe”


FIG. 1. Center detail of Bottle of Rum, as viewed with transmitted light.

For more information, see:
Rabinow, Rebecca. "Confetti Cubism." In Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection (MMA, 2014), pp. 162–163, 314.


Contributors

Isabelle Duvernois
Conservator, Paintings Conservation

abstract cubist image with a lot of whites, browns, and greys and lines everywhere.
Scholar and curator Anna Jozefacka discusses an unrealized decorative commission by Pablo Picasso intended for a Brooklyn residence.
Isabelle Qian
October 16, 2023
Cubist painting of a metronome in tones of gray and brown
Braque’s painting marked a critical step in advancing Cubism, but the importance of the metronome has been overlooked.
Lauren Rosati
October 5, 2020
Oil painting of nude woman sitting on a stool holding a cloth between her bent legs with a dark green background
Discover Picasso’s walk through the Jardin des Plantes, and his encounter with Oceanic sculpture at the Musée d’histoire naturelle, that inspired a 1908 painting.
Philippe Peltier and Samuel Bronowski
October 28, 2019
More in:Cubism in Focus

A slider containing 1 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Bottle of Rum, Georges Braque  French, Oil on canvas
Georges Braque
Paris, spring 1914