Violin and Pitcher
Georges Braque - 1910, Oil on canvas 117x73 cm.
Georges Braque's Violin and Pitcher painted between late 1909 and early 1910 and was one of many still lives's, which became his favoured genre. Braque continued to paint still lives and painted them for the rest of his life Picasso on the other hand, frequently and eventually stayed with the figurative style.
The painting, typical of the 'Analytic' style, has been shattered and spread apart so that the objects are broken and separated, the violin Is twisted so that the bottom can be seen and parts removed. Next to the tuning pegs there seems to be a cut away part of the violin in the form of a curve, the pitcher Is above left of the violin and Is twisted but formed by different facets, these facets are not like those seen In former paintings, they follow the contours of the pitcher and make Itself sit out In front of the background.
This painting Introduces elements of an earlier painting, the 'Violin and Palette' of 1909, the nail at the top of the composition can be seen In both paintings but, In this painting It serves no real purpose. Below the nail there is a piece of paper which flattens the planes out, this piece of paper has one corner folded giving off a shadow, this giving a description of the light which is being beamed down from the top right corner.
Many of the still life's painted by Braque and Picasso include violins, this is maybe because of their interest in music, Braque played the violin, the accordion and the flute, Picasso didn't play an instrument but found that it would be relevant to paint them because he was surrounded by them all the time. A reason also for painting musical instruments was that they were not natural and showed the way the Cubists pushed themselves away from naturalism.