French painter. Influences and the meetings - of which that of Picasso in 1907 - will determine the evolution of Georges Braque until it takes part in the one of the greatest pictorial revolutions of the beginning of the XX ^E century, cubism.

The youth of Georges Braque was hard: after short studies with the college of Le Havre, it entered like apprentice the building and all seemed to intend it for the trade of his/her father, modest contractor. This one, which occupied its leisures to paint, had initiated his/her son with the joys of art, and had authorized it to follow courses of the evening of painting.

Its finished military service, Georges Braque is devoted entirely to painting, settles in Paris, between the Humbert academy where it binds with Marie Laurencin and Picabia, then with the Academy of the fine arts (in the workshop of Bonnat) where it meets Othon Friesz and the Dufy brothers. Since 1904, it rents a workshop. Its first sending with the Living room of independent goes back to 1906. Attracted by modern research more than by the classicism, it is subject to the influence of impressionism (Seen of a garden, 1904), of Matisse and Derain, then that of the deer, with the dogmas of which Othon Friesz initiates. Estaque, the Landing stage (1906), Ciotat (1907) or the Wearing of Antwerp are the examples of this period of youth which represents only one short stage in its evolution.

The blooming of its true personality, which will be expressed by the refusal of realism and the cubism, is worked out starting from the works of Cézanne, discovered in 1907, at the time of a great retrospective to the Living room of autumn. Direct gives up then the geometrical prospect and any expressionist sensuality to translate, only, the absolute structure of the things (Houses in Estaque, 1908).

Its first personal exposure, organized by Kahnweiler in 1908 (following the refusal of its sending to the Living room), unchains the lightnings of the public and the official critic. She marks the beginning of the friendship which will bind it to Picasso.

The cubism is formulated and opens out thanks to the collaboration of Directs and Picasso who, of 1909 to 1914, meet each day to confront their work and their research, spending even their holidays together (in Céret). From all this period, following works are retained: the Castle of the Rock-Guyon (1909), the Violin and the jug (1910), the Portuguese (1911), oval Still life (1914).

Direct seriously was wounded and trepanned during the war of 1914-1918. Its art will preserve however its strength and will gain in solidity: series of the Pedestal tables, as from 1919 (whose Café), of the Chimneys (Still life in guitar I, or Waltzes, or Chimney, 1920-1921), etc the evolution of the color and the lines feels in the blue and red Guitar (1930) and the Still life in the mandoline (1936-1938). In 1937, the painter will receive the first price of the Carnegie foundation. Its pictorial style still grows rich with the series by the Workshops (by 1950 to approximately 1956) and by the Birds, which are also the central theme of the decoration of the museum of Louvre (ceiling of the Etruscan room, 1952-1953). Direct also illustrated themselves as sculptor (Head of horse, 1943) and composed of the models of jewels, of which some were exposed under the aegis of André Malraux to the house of Marsan (1963).

Contemporary painting is indebted in Braque major part of its innovations. It worked out, only and before Picasso, the cubism of which it is the true precursor. It carried out the first stuck paper (Fruit dish and glass, 1912). One owes him: nails in trompe-l'oeil (1909-1910), the introduction of the figures and letters of printing works to the stencil key set, matter imitations (forgery marble, forgery wood, etc), the enrichment of the pigments while incorporating in it of the various matters (sand, iron filings, sawdust, fine gravels, etc). It renewed the repertory set of themes all while limiting it on given subjects of study. Its abundant work multiplies paintings of the same subject. But the sensual richness of its pallet, where dominate the brown ones and the gray, renews each experiment.