The Castle of La Roche-Guyon
Georges Braque - 1909, Oil on canvas 80 x 59.9 cm.
In 1909, Braque continued his Interest In landscapes and sought to widen its possibilities. The Castle of La Roche-Guyon is Cézanne inspired from the research at L'Estaque. The painting shows the elimination of depth that Braque for his interest at this time was to create a harmony of forms, conflicting the opposition of ochre and greens
The composition of this painting is built up of geometric planes, these are the houses tightly painted In ochre's, the trees are not painted so tightly, the greens blues and yellows are freely spread about with directional brush strokes possible showing the movement of the trees from the wind?
The painting is confusing, the name of the painting suggests one building but to me it looks like many. From the bottom of the painting there are trees to the right and two sides of the building and a smaller roof separated, then there is a steady incline the buildings becoming smaller the further they precede up the canvas, this giving a sense of distance even though the painting is very flat. The painting could be of one castle, maybe the building is split up into planes taken from multiple view points laid down on the canvas so that they are then juxtaposed, superimposed and separated by the order of the trees.