The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

The Crystal Vase

1929

Georges Braque

(French, 1882–1963)
France, 20th century
oil on canvas
Unframed: 41.2 x 120.5 cm (16 1/4 x 47 7/16 in.)
Gift of Alexandre P. Rosenberg 1975.82
© Artists Right Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

After meeting in 1907, Braque worked closely with Pablo Picasso to create Cubism, a radically new style concerned with formal abstraction and the reorganization of pictorial space.

Description

This still life is one of four paintings commissioned from Georges Braque by collector Paul Rosenberg for his home at 21 rue de la Boetie in Paris. Each painting hung on a separate wall of the dining room, and mosaics based on the paintings were inlaid in the floor, creating a remarkably harmonious grouping known as the "Rosenberg Quartet." When Rosenberg sold his apartment in 1949, the paintings were dispersed (another work from the series is at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC) and the mosaics were converted to tabletops. Crystal Vase is unique among the group for its color scheme—comprising thin washes of muted beiges, grays, and oranges—and for its elegant placement of objects within the challenging elongated rectangular space. The painting combines Braque’s Cubist style of the 1920s with homages to his French forebears Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin and Paul Cézanne.
  • 1929-probably 1959
    Paul Rosenberg [1881-1959], Paris and New York, by descent to his son, Alexandre Rosenberg
    Probably 1959-1975
    Alexandre Rosenberg [1921-1987], New York, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1975-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 In 1928-1929, Braque executed four compositions in preparation for four marble mosaic panels to be installed in the dining room floor of art dealer Paul Rosenberg’s Paris apartment at 21 rue La Boëtie.  Braque gave the preparatory compositions and the CMA painting to Rosenberg. When Rosenberg sold the apartment in 1949, the marble panels were removed from the floor and made into table tops resting on wrought iron bases, also designed by Braque.  The table made after The Crystal Vase was in the Paris collection of Rosenberg’s daughter, Micheline, at the time of Alexandre’s donation of the painting to the Cleveland Museum of Art. 
  • Braque, Georges. Georges Braque. Lyon: Fage Editions, 2018. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 42-43
    Alexandre Rosenberg, letter to Sherman Lee, Nov. 14, 1975, in CMA curatorial file.
    Alexandre Rosenberg, letter to Sherman Lee, Nov. 14, 1975, in CMA curatorial file.
    Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 2 (February 1976): 31–71. Reproduced: p. 48; Mentioned: p. 69, no. 131 www.jstor.org
    Henning, Edward B. “Two Major Paintings by Georges Braque.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 4 (April 1977): 137–141. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 137, fig. 2 www.jstor.org
    Moskowitz, Peta. “The Crystal Vase.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 4 (April 1977): 147–151. Mentioned: p. 147-151; Reproduced: p. 147, fig. 1 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 243 archive.org
    Henning, Edward B. “Two New Cubist Paintings by Juan Gris and Pablo Picasso.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 2 (February 1981): 39–50. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 40, fig. 6 www.jstor.org
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945. Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (organizer) (January 25-April 21, 2013); The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (June 8-September 1, 2013).
    Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis (1/25/2013 - 4/21/2013) and The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (6/8/2013 - 9/1/2103): "Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life,", p. 123, Plate 5.
    Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005).
    Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; February 20 - May 29, 2005. "Masterworks from The Phillips Collection". Not in exh. cat.
    Le Havre, France. Musée des Beaux-Arts André-Malraux "Georges Braque" (3/19 - 6/21/99) repr. p. 64.
    Georges Braque. Musée d'art moderne André Malraux, 76600 Le Havre, France (organizer) (March 19-June 21, 1999).
    Year in Review: 1975. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 3-March 7, 1976).
  • {{cite web|title=The Crystal Vase|url=false|author=Georges Braque|year=1929|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.82