The following image is called Violin and Candlestick. It has a striking resemblance to the image by picasso in the previous posting of woman with mandolin:
I like the flat planes, with shading in sands and grey accentuating the corners of the planes with the light leading to the edge of the picture. This effect leads the eye away constantly, from the objects in the centre and bottom of the image. It's as if the eyes dance across the picture rather like the inaudible notes of the violin. The light in the left side of the picture perhaps being thrown by the unlit candle on the right, or perhaps the flame is represented by the grey rectangle. The painting asks to be looked into again and again and I find it inviting.
A later painting from 1939, just at the point of the beginning of the second world war is in happy contrast to this image above:
The painting does not have such a cubist style dominant though flat planes still make up the objects represented. Colours are brighter and brush strokes less emphatic. I love the layering and transparency of some of the objects such as the paint palette and brushes. It seems to float on the table like a ghost and I wonder to the meaning of this choice to represent the articles of making art in this way. That the artist and process should be invisible and subordinate to the idea, or the choice of an artist to remain invisible whilst a painting is very visible. Braque was badly wounded in the first world war and I wonder how this affected his sense of self as a person and as a painter, if their is a relationship or ghost of this experience in his painting. I feel I'd like to talk to him about this painting to help me understand what he was saying and whether I'm reading him accurately. I also just like the painting!
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