The Table (Still Life with Fan)

1908

From landscape to still life

In 1908 Braque, together with Picasso, discovered the advantages of still life: in his words it offers a tactile, almost “manual” space, answering his long-held urge to touch things and not merely see them.

14 November 1908

Exhibition at Kahnweiler's and Vauxcelles's “cubes”

Reviewing Braque's exhibition at Kahnweiler's gallery, the critic Louis Vauxcelles called him a daring man who despises form, “reducing everything, places and figures and houses, to geometric schemas, to cubes”.

25 March 1909

“Cubic oddities” at the Salon des Indépendants

On seeing a painting by Braque at the Salon des Indépendants, Louis Vauxcelles spoke of “bizarreries cubiques” — “cubic oddities”.

1909–1912

Creates Cubism together with Picasso

From 1909 to 1912 (other accounts say from as early as 1908) Braque worked with Picasso on the theoretical foundations of Cubism and became one of the movement's founders; for many years their paintings of the period were indistinguishable. Braque likened their partnership to being roped together on a mountain.

summer 1911

Summer in Céret, side by side with Picasso

The summer of 1911 was decisive for Cubism: Braque and Picasso painted side by side in Céret in the French Pyrenees, and their canvases of that time are hard, sometimes virtually impossible, to tell apart.

1912

Invents papier collé

In 1912 Braque and Picasso began experimenting with collage, and Braque invented the technique of papier collé — pasted paper.