1912-1913

Violin and Guitar

Spanish, 1881 - 1973

Braque's early training as a peintre-décorateur (painter-decorator), during which he learned to paint trompe l'oeil (fool the eye) surfaces of marble and grained wood, had a profound impact on the development of Cubism. Both Braque and Picasso painted wood-grain patterns in their works before carrying the idea further by gluing pieces of wood-grain wallpaper to the canvas, a technique known as collage. The addition of foreign materials into works like this one served a dual purpose: the wallpaper functions as an integral part of the composition while also adding its own reality to the painting.