GEORGES BRAQUE

An enthusiastic appraisal of the French painter’s work, but a less compelling account of his life.

Early in his career, Braque (1882–1963) followed Matisse, the undisputed leader of the Fauves. Shortly after, he formed with Picasso perhaps the most fruitful and intense partnership in the history of art: Together, they invented Cubism, a revolutionary pictorial assault on time and space. His reputation certainly benefits from his link to the two greatest artists of the 20th century, but Danchev (International Relations/Univ. of Nottingham), whose style and presentation occasionally evoke the manner of the artist he so clearly loves, insists that Braque is “the third man of modern art.” His establishment of Cubist motifs and his other innovations, notably paper sculptures and papier collés (pasted paper or collages), entitle Braque to a larger place in art history than generally acknowledged, argues his biographer. Rarely swayed by political or aesthetic fashion, intensely private, unusually silent and always disciplined, Braque went his own way, a path surely more narrow than Danchev appears willing to concede. His struggle was not so much with the times or with other artists, but rather with himself, to “bring painting within my gifts.” Conscious of his own limitations (he assiduously avoided portraiture), Braque applied his talent to still-lifes and landscapes. Danchev cannot persuade us, though he tries mightily, that the second half of the artist’s career measured up to the first. Still, if he was a lesser artist than Picasso or Matisse, Braque was surely a better man: faithfully married for more than 50 years, severely wounded as an officer during WWI and, though not a member of la résistance, at least a non-cooperator with the German occupation during WWII. By the time he died, in 1963, Braque’s achievements merited a state funeral presided over by André Malraux.

Scholars are unlikely to agree that Braque’s reputation will come to rest as high as Danchev insists.