Glass, Bottle, and Newspaper
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Tradesmen would have hung the faux bois wallpaper vertically to simulate tongue-and-groove oak paneling, but here Braque pasted the cutouts horizontally. So mysterious is the space conjured in this still life that, in its “incorrect” orientation, the wallpaper could designate a wainscot, a tabletop, floorboards, or all three. The wallpaper is an alien presence, but Braque used the linear grooves and the drifts of wood-grain to reinforce, respectively, his hand-drawn geometric grid and hatched shading. Here and there Braque also extended the pattern by hand or drew over the offcuts: thus, the top edge of the ghostly newspaper (“JOUR[NAL]”) traverses the uppermost cutout.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass, Bottle, and Newspaper
- Artist: Georges Braque (French, Argenteuil 1882–1963 Paris)
- Date: 1912
- Medium: Charcoal and cut-and-pasted printed wallpaper on laid paper
- Dimensions: 18 7/8 × 24 7/16 in. (48 × 62 cm)
- Classification: Collages
- Credit Line: Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (64.1)
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Photo: Robert Bayer
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art