European

Georges Braque

France 1882-1963
Eros and Eurybia OP 310

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In the 1930s Braque's (Broc's) interest in Greek mythology took him to the Louvre where he spent lengthy periods of time sketching the museum's extensive collection of Greek vases and engraved gems. Braque filled his sketchbooks with drawings of Greek mythological figures and in 1931, with the encouragement of dealer, Ambroise Vollard, undertook a print series based on the Theogony (genealogy of the gods) written by Hesiod in the eighth or ninth century B.C. He chose as the frontispiece, an image of Eros (god of love) and Eurybia (also known as Thetis, goddess of the sea and mother of the stars). Braque has surrounded the two figures with undulating etched lines but seems to have grounded them by placing between them a tree trunk sprouting new life. Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso have become legendary figures in the history of art. They were in Picasso's words, like "two mountaineers roped together," when from 1910-1912 they explored and experimented with a new way of seeing and representing, called Cubism. By 1918, Braque's and Picasso's interests and styles had diverged, although both continued to experiment with techniques and subject matter.

 

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