George Braque.  Still Life on a Mantelpiece

c. 1923, oil and sand on canvas

He started to paint this way after he came back home badly injured from WWI. The objects are all compressed onto a narrow shelf at the
end of a mantelpiece above a fireplace. The paint is applied to resemble paper pieces. He added sand to add texture. The vase is broken down into planes of dark and light to imply shadows without using shading.

Braque was born in Argenteuil. He was a leading fauvist. His father was a housepainter. He was fond of cubism because of the materialization of that new space.

Albert Gleizes.  Man in a Hammock, 1913, oil on canvas

Albert Gleizes did not like school and often skipped classes to idle away the time writing poetry and wandering through nearby Montmartre. After completing his secondary schooling, Gleizes spent four years in the French army then began pursuing a career as a painter, primarily doing landscapes. Initially influenced by the Impressionists, he was only twenty-one years of age when his work was exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1902. The following year he was part of the first Salon d'Automne and soon came under the influence of Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Jean Metzinger and Henri Le Fauconnier.

Gleizes' evolving cubism saw him exhibit at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1910 then collaborate with Jean Metzinger to produce a theoretical essay about cubism that was published in 1912. In the fall of that year, he and Metzinger joined the Puteaux Group led by Jacques Villon and his brother Marcel Duchamp. In February 1913,

Julio Gonzalez.  Harlequin, c. 1930, bronze

Spanish sculptor. The son of a goldsmith and sculptor, González went to Paris in 1900. There he met Picasso and taught him techniques of iron welding and was in turn influenced by certain of Picasso's cubist ideas. Executed with ingenuity, González's semiabstract sculptures (e.g., Hombre-Cactus, 1939-40) are often free interpretations of the human figure. They distinguish him as one of the outstanding sculptors of the 20th cent.

Juan Gris.  Le Canigou, 1921, oil on canvas

Important a cubist as Braques or Picasso. he also studied Cezanne.
by 1912 he developed his own colorful cubist style.” Washstand With Mirror” 1912 he was one of the first artists to incorporate objects into his works. It has a real mirror. After seeing Picasso’s and Braque’s collages he came up with this.
“Le Canigou” 1921 is a view from his hotel room of a mountaintop in the Pyrenees. To integrate the objects very close to him with the far distance of the open window he uses repeated shapes like the triangular shapes of the mountain range echoed by the corner
of the table. The ovals are repeated in the guitar and the goblet. It’s a view through open shutters. He painted the folds of the tablecloth with shading which the other cubists weren’t doing at the time. The icy blues and whites give the feeling of a chilly winter day. The line in the center remains almost unbroken and defines the spine of a book.

Fernand Leger.  Smoke, 1912, oil on canvas

Born in Normandy, 1881. met Picasso in 1909. He also studied
Cezanne. Much of his early work has been lost and it resembled a slightly different version of what Picasso and Braques were doing.

He tried to achieve the maximum pictorial contrast by using certain kinds of “contrasts of forms” (like “Smoke” 1912). Contrasting strong colors (esp. primaries) as well as straight lines vs. curved lines and geometric solids against flat planes.“Smoke” 1912 is a perfect example of his “contrast of forms” painted right before
he formalized his theory. Its 1 of 7 paintings that explore the contrasts between puffs of smoke and more solid architectural forms.

Jacques Lipchitz, Sailor with Guitar, 1914, bronze

Born in Lithuania to a wealthy jewish building contractor from a
wealthy banking family. His father wanted him to be an engineer, but he protested. After moving to Paris in 1909 and received a very traditional training in art and sculpture in particular.

This is onsidered proto cubist sculpture. It marks an important transition in his career in which the visual vestiges of his academic
education gave way to the cubist influence of Picasso and Braque. This work still retains a degree of realism. It’s based on his direct observations of a young Spanish sailor who is trying to charm a pretty girl by dancing and playing his guitar. It looks human but the
body is transformed into angular facets producing sharp contrast in shadow and light. It was an early sculpture that was later cast in bronze.

Jean Metzinger.  Dancer in a Cafe, 1912, oil on canvas

A technique he termed “simultaneity” which was a rather naïve view of cubism. All of the intellectual aspects were simplified into the idea of showing different points of view in the same work. He loved to paint transparency. He combined traditional painting with cubism in the same painting. he also added a lot of color. The other side of simultaneity had a deeper space than what Picasso and Braques were exploring in analytic cubism. This was painted at the height of Braques and Picassos most obscure analytic cubism phase. The composition is colorful, faceted, and has patterned decorative elements that seem more important than the exploration of space. It’s a typical Parisian café with 4 fashionable Parisians crowded in a table to the left all being entertained by a tall dancer to the right. You can see the tall plume like feathers (1 blue 1 yellow) on the hats of the seated women. You can find the hat on the man at the top. Most of the still life objects are discernable. there’s a beer glass. There’s 2 wine bottles, a
tiny matchbox. The 2 light fixtures at the top are in the then popular art nouveau style and are painted far more traditionally.

Francis Picabia.  Figure Triste, 1912, oil on canvas

Started painting in the impressionist style, and then was influenced
by the fauve. His influence then switched to cubism. His mother died when he was 7. a lot of his subjects deal with death. In 1922 he said “between my head and my hand there
is always the figure of death”. “Figure Triste” 1912 which means sad figure or sad fact. so even the title is ambiguous. It could even be seen as a metaphor for sadness. In the center is a small figure with the knees drawn up surrounded by what may be a maternal figure painted with sad colors as if its sitting on its mothers lap (his mom died at age 7).

Pablo Picasso, La Toilette, 1906, oil on canvas

Was painted between his blue and rose periods. It portrays his love
for his mistress Fernande with whom he lived with in the Pyrenees. There is no deep space. It’s a study in dualities both visual and intellectual. Visually the nude is like a Greek nude sculpture with no shadow, and the maid is like an Egyptian statue (w/ side
view) and has a slight shadow. Nude has upward moving arms and is on 1 foot, other has motionless lowered arms and is standing on both feet. Intellectually it depicts the intimate alluring ways of a lover contrasting a clothed chaste appearance of the same person in
public. It’s also an ode to sensuality balanced by the mirrors implications of both self examination and the fleeting nature of beauty.

Pablo Picasso.  Nude Figure, 1909-10, oil on canvas

He used Cézannes idea of a new space, linking the planes
of foreground and background. He turns space into geometric interlocking colorful forms. “Nude Figure” 1909-10 once had a curtain (like the way Cézanne “framed” his) but it disappeared in the final painting. It’s an object from more than 1 perspective. The
pose is modeled after Cézannes “Bathers”. The figure and the background look as if they are made of the same material because of the way he painted it.