Basket of Anemones

1924

Georges Braque

(French, 1882–1963)

Culture

France, 20th century

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

Unframed: 21 x 65.4 cm (8 1/4 x 25 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.103

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

The flowering plant genus Anemone blooms in a wide variety of colors from red to blue; however, Braque opted to paint the flowers in a muted, neutral Cubist color palette.

Description

In the early 1920s, Braque painted a series of still lifes notable for their focus on a few objects compressed into a dense space. This still life features a brown wicker basket with five or six flowers packed into a horizontal format. The basket dominates the space by its size and central placement. The absence of a conventional foreground is striking. Rather than recede into space, the tabletop is tilted upright so it exists on the same vertical plane as the gray wall. A decorator’s comb was used to create the wood grain pattern in the tabletop.