GEORGES BRAQUE | Maison sur la colline

Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris 

Galerie Drouant-David, Paris

Jean Salomon, Geneva (acquired circa 1950)

Private Collection (by descent from the above)

Acquired from the above in 2014

Bern, Kunsthalle, Les Fauves und die Zeitgenossen, 1950, no. 4 (titled Paysage)

Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen & Berlin, Nationalgalerie der ehemals Staatlichen Museen Orangerie des Schlosses Charlottenburg, Triumph der Farbe, di Europäischen Fauves, 1959, no. 58 (titled Landschaft)

Basel, Kunsthalle, Georges Braque, 1960, no. 8 (titled Paysage)

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Franse landschappen van Cézanne tot Heden, 1963, no. 19, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Paysage)

Geneva, Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève, Art du 20e siècle, Collections genevoises Musée Rath cabinet des estampes, 1973, no. 24, illustrated in the catalogue 

Tokyo, Galeries Seibu Takatsuki & traveling, Exposition Les Fauves, 1974, no. 3, illustrated in color in the catalogue (titled Paysage à L’Estaque)

Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght, Georges Braque, 1980, no. 14, illustrated in the catalogue 

Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts & Strasbourg, Musée d’Art Moderne, Georges Braque en Europe, Centenaire de la naissance de Georges Braque (1882-1963), 1982, no. 12, illustrated in the catalogue

Lausanne, Fondation de l’Hermitage, De Cézanne à Picasso dans les collections romandes, 1985, no. 50, illustrated in color in the catalogue (titled Paysage à L’Estaque)

Barcelona, Museu Picasso, Georges Braque 1882-1963, 1986-87

Lost Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art & London, Royal Academy of Arts, The Fauve Landscape: Matisse, Derain, Braque and their circle, 1904-1908, 1990-91, n.n., illustrated in color in the catalogue (titled Paysage à L'Estaque)

Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, G Braque, 1992, no. 12, illustrated in color in the catalogue 

Marseille, Musée Cantini, L’Estaque, naissance du paysage moderne, 1870-1910, 1994, no. 35, illustrated in color in the catalogue 

George Isarlov, Georges Braque, Paris, 1932, no. 28, p. 15

Stanislas Fumet, Georges Braque, Paris, 1965, illustrated p. 22

Massimo Carrà & Marco Valsecchi, L’Opera completa di Braque dalla scomposizione cubista al recupero dell'oggetto 1908-1929, Milan, 1971, no. 18, illustrated p. 86 

Marcel Giry, Le Fauvisme: ses origines, son évolution, Neuchâtel, 1981, illustrated in color pl. 111 (titled Paysage à L’Estaque)

Nicole Worms de Romilly & Jean Laude, Braque, cubism, 1907–1914, Paris, 1982, illustrated p. 25

Jeanine Warnod, “Fauves en délire” in Le Figaro, Paris, June 2, 1991, illustrated p. 23

Pierre Daix, “Le Cubisme de Braque” in Connaissances des Arts, Paris, 1992, illustrated in color p. 29

Flaminio Gualdoni, “La Svizzera riscopre il genio di Braque” in Gente, Milan, June 15, 1992, illustrated p. 113

William Packer, “A cubist of classical order” in Financial Times, London, June 20, 1992

Giovanni Testori, “Grandi mostre. Ommagio della Svizzera a Georges Braque. Un’antologica alla Fondazione Gianadda di Martigny” in Corriere della Sera, Milan, June 28, 1992

Mireille Descombes, “Braque, le génie consciencieux” in L’Hebdo, no. 27, Paris, July 2–8, 1992, illustrated in color p. 65

“Georges Braque” in L’Officiel de la couture et de la mode de Paris, Paris, August 1992, illustrated n.p. 

G.R. Koch, “Das vitale und das Fragile. Der Maler als zartes und träumerisches Vogelwesen: Bilder von Georges Braque in Martigny” in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt, August 4, 1992

“Matisse, Braque, côtoyant le monde en images ou l’art populaire” in Marie France, Paris, September 1992, illustrated p. 156

Georges Braque et le paysage de L'Estaque à Varengeville 1906-1963 (exhibition catalogue), Musée Cantini, Marseille, 2006, illustrated in color pp. 65 & 172

Braque's depictions of the environs of Provence rank among the most expressive and desirable of the Fauve landscapes. The inception of these rare and extraordinary canvases dates from the period immediately after the fall of 1905, when Matisse, Derain and Vlaminck first exhibited their boldy colorful Colliure landscapes at the Salon d'Automne and famously earned the moniker "wild beasts." Braque, who was twenty-three at the time, was overwhelmed and captivated by these pictures: “Matisse and Derain opened the road for me,” he later confirmed (see fig. 1). During the next two years, he associated himself with the Fauve group, producing what he called his “first creative works” (quoted in D. Cooper, Braque: The Great Years (exhibition catalogue), Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1972, p. 27; see fig. 2). In 1906, Braque too would travel to the South of France, but he chose instead the rich terrain of the Provençal countryside as opposed to the port towns. In the present work, which was painted in the summer of 1907, Braque depicts the rolling hills near La Ciotat and L'Estaque—an area that would figure prominently in his subsequent Cubist production. Maison sur la colline evokes the light and color that fascinated Braque in the south of France and which lent itself to the magisterial landscape of the hills which sprung up from the sea. Using hues of red, purple, blue, green and yellow Braque builds the vertiginous landscape topped with a red-roofed house and frames the composition with the bows of a shading tree above where he set up his easel. The geometric concerns of Cézanne which would, in turn, lead Braque to his explosive discovery of Cubism, are foreshadowed in this composition. 

Remembering this period of his career, Braque later told Jacques Lassaigne, the noted art critic, art historian and author: “I can say that the first pictures in L’Estaque were conceived before I set out. I set myself, nevertheless, to submit them to the influences of the light, of the atmosphere, and to the effect of the rain which enlivened the colors” (quoted in Georges Braque, Rétrospective (exhibition catalogue), Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 1994, p. 42).

Like most of the Fauve painters, Braque painted en plein air. He frequently set up his easel alongside Émile-Othon Friesz, a fellow artist and compatriot who had traveled to L'Estaque with him from Le Havre. The mild Mediterranean climate allowed the artists to paint outdoors throughout the fall and winter months—a factor that had also appealed to Cézanne, whose paintings of L'Estaque from the 1880s are some of his most celebrated landscapes (see fig. 3). Braque himself would draw further inspiration from Cézanne in the years that immediately followed, incorporating structure and tone into his earliest cubist paintings (see fig. 4)  

Braque later commented about his Fauve experience of 1906 and 1907: “For me Fauvism was a momentary adventure in which I became involved because I was young… I was freed from the studios, only twenty-four, and full of enthusiasm, I moved toward what for me represented novelty and joy, toward Fauvism. It was in the South of France that I first felt truly elated. Just think, I had only recently left the dark, dismal Paris studios where they still painted with pitch! What a joyful revelation I had there!” (quoted in G. Diehl, The Fauves, New York, 1975, p. 132).