Artist
Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963)French, 1882–1963
CultureFrench
Titles
- Fishing Boats (Le Perrey)
Date1909–1910
PlaceFrance
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsCanvas: 36 1/4 × 28 7/8 in. (92.1 × 73.3 cm)
Frame: 48 1/4 × 40 7/8 in. (122.6 × 103.8 cm)
Frame: 48 1/4 × 40 7/8 in. (122.6 × 103.8 cm)
Credit LineJohn A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection, gift of Audrey Jones Beck
Object number74.135
Current Location
The Audrey Jones Beck Building
223 Beck Galleries
On view
Explore Further
Department
European Art, Beck CollectionSpecial Collections
Object Type
Georges Braque's style of painting forever transformed the world of art.
He met Pablo Picasso around 1907, and together they would create a revolutionary manner of visualizing reality, breaking free from the traditional means of portraying perspective on a two-dimensional surface. Fishing Boats was produced during the first year of their close association. Soon the two artists formulated and produced the initial works of Analytical Cubism.
The term Cubism came from French art critic Louis Vauxcelles, an enemy of the avant-garde. He described the early works of Braque and Picasso as reducing all elements to geometric diagrams or cubes. Fishing Boats depicts a typical fishing village on the Normandy coast, but Braque—eschewing a naturalistic or impressionistic rendering—chose to restrict his palette to subtle earth tones and to concentrate on the geometric shapes of boats and buildings. The paintings from this period helped to establish one of the significant developments in the history of 20th-century art.
Provenance[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, likely from the artist, after 1912, by 1914] [1]; [Hôtel Drouot, Paris, “Tableaux, aquarelles, gouaches et dessins (…): Troisième vente de la galerie Kahnweiler,” 4 July 1922, lot 43, as “Le Perret,” illus. in b/w, p. 5] [2]; purchased by André Breton (Tinchebray, France 1896–Paris, 1966), 1922 [3]; [Galerie Pierre, Paris, by 1930] [4]; Pierre Gaut (1893–after 1980), Paris, by 1933 [5]; Walter P. Chrysler Jr. (Oelwein, Iowa, 1909–Norfolk, Virginia, 1988), New York, after October 1937, by November 1939 [6]; [Perls Galleries, New York] [7]; Mrs. Marius de Zayas (née Virginia Harrison, 1901–?), Greenwich, Connecticut, possibly by 1941, by 1965 [8]; [Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, "Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings, and Sculptures (Various owners including Mrs. Marius de Zayas, Greenwich, CT)”, 8 December 1965, lot 60, illus. in color]; Allan Bluestein (1900–1981), Washington, D.C., 1965; [Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, "Highly Important Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture: The Property of Allan Bluestein, Washington, D.C.," 3 April 1968, lot 15, as Barques de peche (Leperrey), illus. in color]; purchased by Mr. John A. and Mrs. Audrey Jones Beck, Houston, 1968–1974; given to MFAH, 1974.
[1] Braque signed his first contract with Kahnweiler on 30 November 1912. The painting is registered as Ph Kahnweiler 1025. Worms and Laude (1982), no. 51.
[2] Digitized on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/tableauxaquarell00htel_0/page/4/mode/2up (Accessed by Julia May Boddewyn, 17 December 2024).
[3] “Revue des ventes: Sequestre Kahnweiler,” Gazette de Hôtel Drouot (6 July 1922): 1. The press reported that M. Breton acquired the painting for 800 francs. Digitized on INHA website: https://bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr/viewer/59669/?offset=1#page=333&viewer=picture&o=search&n=0&q=braque%20kahnweiler (Accessed by Julia May Boddewyn, 17 December 2024). Breton began collecting in May 1921 and acquired over eighteen works from the Kahnweiler sales by Picasso, Braque, and Derain. Sean O’Hanlon, “André Breton and the Modern Art of Collecting,” PhD. Dissertation, Stanford Univ., 2020, pp. 28–9.
[4] Galerie Pierre, run by Pierre Loeb (1897–1964), was the lender to the exhibition: 1930 Paris.
[5] Gaut, who was a movie producer, was the lender of the painting to Basel 1933, according to the handwritten inscription in the catalogue held by the Museum of Modern Art Library, New York. Tasseau, Vérane, "Pierre Gaut," The Modern Art Index Project (September 2018), Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://doi.org/10.57011/WYCW1997 (Accessed by Julia May Boddewyn, 17 Dec. 2024).
[6] The entire collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr. was shown in Richmond in January 1941 and did not include this painting, indicating that it had been sold by then.
[7] The Perls Gallery Records include correspondence with Walter P. Chrysler Jr. but not with Mr. or Mrs. de Zayas, suggesting that there may have been another owner after Perls who then sold it to Mrs. de Zayas. Perls Galleries records, 1937-1997, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
[8] Although this cannot be confirmed from the sales catalogue, it would seem that Mrs. de Zayas, who is listed as a seller in the sale title, was the seller in 1965. Laporte (1955) lists no owner and Gieure (1956) lists private collection.
Exhibition History"25th Salon des Artistes Indépendants," Paris, 1909. (Exhibited as Landscape).
"G. Braque," Basel, Kunsthalle, 1933.
"Georges Braque," Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd., London, 1934.
"The Cubist Epoch," Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970–71.
"U.S. Loan Exhibition," National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1971–73.
"The Collection of John. A. and Audrey Jones Beck," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1974.
"Braque: The Late Paintings," Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, April 14–June 14, 1983.
"Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," The Museum of Modern Art, New York, September 20, 1989–January 16, 1990; Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel, Switzerland, February 25–June 18, 1990.
"Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1989.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto: Signed, lower right: G. Braque
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Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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Alexander Rodchenko
April–May 1926, printed 1994
Gelatin silver print
95.325.8
