© Georges Braque/Bildupphovsrätt 2025
La Roche-Guyon: le château
Artist
Georges Braque
(Frankrike, 1882 - 1963)
Alternate Title
- Slottet i La Roche-Guyon
- The Castle at Roche-Guyon
Date1909
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsBildmått: 80 × 59,5 cm
Ram: 95,5 × 74,5 × 6 cm
ClassificationPaintings
Credit LineBequest 1966 of Rolf de Maré
Countries
On view
StockholmRoomGallery 01:12
Object NumberNM 5985
CollectionsThe Rolf de Maré Collection, Geometri
About the artworkBuilding up a picture from many geometric shapes… Braque spent the summer of 1909 in La Roche-Guyon; the landscape in the Seine valley a few miles west of Paris fascinated him.. In a letter to the art dealer Kahnweiler he wrote: "Delighted to be here. The landscape is really beautiful. I beg you not to reveal my address to anyone." This desire to paint and the self-chosen isolation paid off: eight paintings of the village were produced, five of them showing the medieval castle.
Paul Cézanne, whom Braque admired immensely, had done some important paintings here 24 years earlier. Now, in the spirit of Cezanne, Braque produces this painting of the medieval castle that climbs up the slope of the mountain. But the painting goes further than Cézanne's in its simplification and is one of the earliest examples of what is usually called Facet Cubism: the parts of the landscape and the castle are organised both architectonically and geometrically, as if facetted.
In its sophisticated use of colour, the painting offers a fascinating interaction between the emerald-green vegetation and the ochre-coloured architecture, but Braque will soon abandon this apparently realistic colour scale in favour of more abstract colouring, using various shades of black, white, grey and brown. We can perhaps see The Chateau in Roche-Guyon as one of the artist's first Cubist masterpieces.
Signatures, inscriptions and marks Se konserveringens arkiv Selected exhibition history Moderna Museets samling i ny presentation (1998-2000) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Den tidiga modernismen: 1900-1920 ur Moderna Museets samling (den 19 mars 2011 - den 2 oktober 2011) Moderna Museet Malmö Samlingsutställning 2004 - 2011 - I vår tid (2004 - 2011) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Scenbyte: verk ur Moderna Museets Samling av Dardel, Matisse, Abdul-Hadi, Hjertén och Léger m.fl. (den 15 oktober 2011 - den 5 februari 2012) Moderna Museet Malmö Mästerverken åter. Verk av spanska konstnärer ur Samling S. runt den återbördade Picassos Källan. (1995) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Ny presentation av samlingen (2000-2002) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Moderna Museet c/o Waldemarsudde - Moderna klassiker (2002-2003) Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm The Moderna Museet exhibition catalogues Mästerverken åter! Moderna Museet, Spårvagnshallarna : [6 maj - 27 augusti 1995]Moderna klassiker : Moderna Museet c/o Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde : 28/9 2002 - 16/2 2003The Masterpieces are back! : Moderna Museet, Spårvagnshallarna : [May 6th - August 27th 1995]
Paul Cézanne, whom Braque admired immensely, had done some important paintings here 24 years earlier. Now, in the spirit of Cezanne, Braque produces this painting of the medieval castle that climbs up the slope of the mountain. But the painting goes further than Cézanne's in its simplification and is one of the earliest examples of what is usually called Facet Cubism: the parts of the landscape and the castle are organised both architectonically and geometrically, as if facetted.
In its sophisticated use of colour, the painting offers a fascinating interaction between the emerald-green vegetation and the ochre-coloured architecture, but Braque will soon abandon this apparently realistic colour scale in favour of more abstract colouring, using various shades of black, white, grey and brown. We can perhaps see The Chateau in Roche-Guyon as one of the artist's first Cubist masterpieces.
Signatures, inscriptions and marks Se konserveringens arkiv Selected exhibition history Moderna Museets samling i ny presentation (1998-2000) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Den tidiga modernismen: 1900-1920 ur Moderna Museets samling (den 19 mars 2011 - den 2 oktober 2011) Moderna Museet Malmö Samlingsutställning 2004 - 2011 - I vår tid (2004 - 2011) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Scenbyte: verk ur Moderna Museets Samling av Dardel, Matisse, Abdul-Hadi, Hjertén och Léger m.fl. (den 15 oktober 2011 - den 5 februari 2012) Moderna Museet Malmö Mästerverken åter. Verk av spanska konstnärer ur Samling S. runt den återbördade Picassos Källan. (1995) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Ny presentation av samlingen (2000-2002) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Moderna Museet c/o Waldemarsudde - Moderna klassiker (2002-2003) Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm The Moderna Museet exhibition catalogues Mästerverken åter! Moderna Museet, Spårvagnshallarna : [6 maj - 27 augusti 1995]Moderna klassiker : Moderna Museet c/o Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde : 28/9 2002 - 16/2 2003The Masterpieces are back! : Moderna Museet, Spårvagnshallarna : [May 6th - August 27th 1995]