Still Life (Glass and Cigarette Pack)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This collage contains a rare autobiographical reference by Braque, who was a keen cyclist: the fragment of an ad for the bimonthy magazine Le Cyclotouriste. The work likely dates from around June 28, 1914, when the artist embarked on a bicycle trip from Sens to Sorgues (a distance of some 370 miles). He framed his own oval picture with a bespoke mat crafted from trompe l’oeil linen wallpaper so that a piece of it crosses the threshold. The rapidly scripted letters that appear literally out and ahead of the rest of the papers likely express the “[vit]esse,” or speed, with which he aimed to complete his cycling journey.
Artwork Details
- Title: Still Life (Glass and Cigarette Pack)
- Artist: Georges Braque (French, Argenteuil 1882–1963 Paris)
- Date: 1914
- Medium: Cut-and-pasted laid and wove papers, newspaper, printed wallpaper, printed packing, charcoal, graphite, oil paint, and watercolor on paperboard
- Dimensions: 13 13/16 × 11 in. (35.1 × 27.9 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift in memory of Charles Barnett Goodspeed by Mrs. Charles B. Goodspeed (1947.879)
- Rights and Reproduction: The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY. © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art