Georges Braque
Karaffe, Zitrone, Fruchtschale (Pichet, Citrons, Compotier), 1928

Alfred Flechtheim and Georges Braque

From the very outset of his artistic career the French painter, graphic artist and sculptor focused on the effect of colour – something he had in common with André Derain and Henri Matisse who were his role models. In 1907 the main works of his Fauvist period included landscapes and nudes. One year later he painted his first Cubist works in L’Estaque near Marseille, influenced by the landscapes Paul Cézanne had painted there. He reduced the objects depicted to fundamental geometrical shapes. The structuring of space through the use of volumes became of central importance. The art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler exhibited a series of landscapes and still lifes in 1908 in his gallery in Paris. In the years to come, up until 1928, Braque concentrated on still lifes with musical instruments, vases, tables and other everyday objects. He started to include letters as suggestive characters in his still lifes from 1912 onwards after studying Pablo Picasso’s work closely. He later experimented with stencilled letters, imitations of materials and mixtures of oil paint and sand, as well as gluing paper onto his canvases.

On 7 October, 1921, Alfred Flechtheim wrote to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler about Braque: “Braque is my absolute favourite.” The two art dealers considered Braque, Picasso and Cubism in general to signal the beginning of a new era in art. Flechtheim’s attention was drawn to Braque by the marchand-amateur Wilhelm Uhde on one of his early trips to Paris and Flechtheim became Braque’s most important patron in Germany. This was possible thanks to Kahnweiler from whom he acquired works and who loaned paintings for the Sonderbund exhibitions in 1911 and 1912 to help make the artist better known in Germany. Kahnweiler was Braque’s sole agent for ten years from 1912 and Flechtheim was the only person authorised to promote and sell works by the artist in Germany. In 1923 Flechtheim organised a Braque exhibition in Prague and in 1925 in Berlin despite anti-French feelings and drew attention to him in his gallery publication ‘Der Querschnitt’ and at numerous group exhibitions. In a letter from 14 July, 1936, written to support the art dealer’s application for French citizenship, the artist described Alfred Flechtheim, who was living in London at this time, as “a tireless promoter of French art”.