Braque le patron. 1947.
Watercolor and India ink over pencil.
Signed and dated. On wove paper. 29 x 21 cm (11.4 x 8.2 in), the full sheet. [KA].


• Clear provenance: The drawing was created in 1947 as a draft for the cover of the publication “Braque le patron” by Jean Paulhan, published by Gérald Cramer, Geneva.
• In 1961, Braque was the first artist to be honored with a solo exhibition at the Musée du Louvre in Paris (“L'Atelier de Braque”) during his lifetime.
• In bright blue and powerful black, Braque condenses his formal language to a radical reduction.
• Braque, along with Picasso, is one of the pioneers of Cubism.
• A copy of the lithograph for which this drawing served as a model is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

PROVENANCE: Gérald Cramer, Geneva (probably directly from the artist).
Patrick Cramer, Geneva (inherited from the above).
Private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above).
Private collection, South Germany (2014, Galerie Jörg Schuhmacher, Frankfurt am Main).
In family ownership ever since.

Vibrant watercolor on multi-layered paper, probably joined together with tape at a later date. There is a slight crease in the upper right and lower left corners of the sheet. There are three tiny pinholes in the upper left-center, probably inherent to the work, and two more in the lower right corner of the sheet.