Georges Braque: A Life [Hardcover]

Alex Danchev (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2005

After Picasso and Matisse, Braque is the third man of modern art. Together with Picasso, he pioneered the greatest revolution in Western ways of seeing since the Renaissance, and if an ism' can be said to be invented by a person, Cubism was invented by Braque. In life, a combination of heroic soldier and Zen master, he seemed to survive everything even the shattering of his skull on the Western Front in 1915 but, in death, his story remains untold. To reveal Braque, as Alex Danchev does here, is to revise Picasso and to illuminate one of the most influential figures in modern art.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though he created both the ideas and the first canvases of the cubist movement, Georges Braque is frequently overshadowed by his celebrated colleague Pablo Picasso. English critic Danchev's detailed biography, the first full-length study of Braque, reveals the reason why: Braque was that rare artist who was just as happy working and producing as seeking glory, an individual who didn't require the fawning attention that others, like Picasso, seemed to subsist on. Braque's friendship with Picasso is extensively explored and, although their relationship had slight sexual undertones (Picasso liked to refer to Braque as his "wife," and he "pursued Braque as relentlessly as he did any woman... over a far longer period"), Danchev makes it clear that their friendship was based on artistic affinity more than anything else. Intriguing revelations about Braque's much-protected private life abound, including discussions of his military service and his unswervingly faithful marriage to Marcelle Vorvanne. Danchev's intimate, conversational tone may put off readers with a preference for more formal biographies, but those with a penchant for lively prose and some familiarity with art history terminology will relish Danchev's meticulous contribution to the study of cubism. Illus. (Nov. 15)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Georges Braque (1882-1963), cocreator, along with Picasso, of cubism, was a patient and steadfast artist given to hard work rather than extravagant gestures. As Danchev makes clear in the first full-length biography of this pivotal yet overlooked French painter, Braque's paradigm-altering paintings are not expressions of ecstasy or despair but, rather, of constancy, the fruits of a sustained exploration of form, space, light, and rapport. The son of a housepainter, a strong and good-looking man who liked to box and drive fast cars, Braque, inspired by Cezanne, brought to art a love of craft and intense curiosity about the structure of matter. Deliberate and contemplative, he was the opposite of mercurial Picasso, with whom he forged an intimate and fertile alliance, "the most phenomenal in the history of art," according to Danchev, who examines their complex interaction with supple insight. At once comprehensive and buoyant, Danchev is fluent in facts and penetrating in his analysis of this deeply private man, a philosophical artist utterly devoted to his work and his wife, who found new ways of understanding nature and perception, dissonance and harmony. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing; First American Edition edition (November 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559707437
• ISBN-13: 978-1559707435
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars life of this leading modernist painter mostly in relation to friends and other artists of his time, January 5, 2006

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Georges Braque: A Life (Hardcover)

With the back matter of three short appendices, lengthy notes, lengthy bibliography, and index starting on page 280, this makes the text less than 300 pages. Danchev's biography on this early modernist artist relates his influence on contemporary artists and on modern art as well as influences on him mostly through Braque's relationships with others. The treatment is not a probing psychological study, nor an aesthetic critique and evaluation; but rather concentrates on aspects of Braque's everyday life--his friendships, his trips, his habits. Braque's long and fertile relationship with Picasso was central to Braque's creativity. Danchev also spends time on Braque's marriage to Marcelle Vorvanne, giving her a mini-biography of her own. Another important relationship for Braque was with Jean Paulhan, one of the editors of "Nouvelle Revue Francaise," who "became [the artist's] greatest tribune and celebrant." Paulhan wrote about Braque's painting, "[I]t is without doubt that his work is at all times strangely complete and sufficient...[with the ultimate] feeling of a delay enjoyed, and an obligation fulfilled." Such observations from others in Braque's life are not only illuminating and stimulating in themselves, but accrue to cast light on the complexities and enigma of Braque--as with any historically significant artist--and his paintings; several of which are shown in color plates. Danchev has written other biographies and is a professor in the School of Politics at the U. of Nottingham.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Braque Deserves a Good Bio - This is not it, July 21, 2010

By 

Frank (Annandale, VA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Georges Braque: A Life (Hardcover)

It is remarkable how few books have been written on Braque. I find him a charming character, based on what I read about him in Richardson's superb bio of Picasso, but I don't like Danchev's style in this bio, and have the feeling that his research was incomplete and too superficial when he wrote it. The organization is lacking, and this appears to derive from a lack of depth on Danchev's part. He rambles most of the time, and needed a disciplined editor. The book doesn't have good reproductions of some important paintings, and one of the color plates, of the ceiling at the Louvre, was taken at an angle that IMO detracts from its presentation. Danchev emphasizes trivia and major themes are lost in the junkpile of his notes, which this book appears to be. In a bio of Braque, I consider it essential to make a strong point about his seminal paintings that initiated first analytic, and then synthetic cubism. Similarly, it is important to tell how he used techniques he learned as a first-rate house painter to impart an original stamp to synthetic cubism, and how Picasso learned these techniques from Braque. I shall confess that I haven't read through the entire book, because I find it painful to read, and don't have much patience for Danchev. Shouldn't there be pictures of Braque dancing, playing music, and especially, boxing?! Braque really deserves a good bio. Will he or she who writes the first be written off as "completement braque?"

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars inspiring biography, July 3, 2007

By 

M. holland (usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Georges Braque: A Life (Hardcover)

I LOVE THIS BOOK.

This book will infect you

with a love of art & artists.

Art students , pay attention

to this delicious treat !