Lithograph on paper
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/georges-braque-803" aria-label="More by Georges Braque" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Georges Braque</a>
Woman with Mandolin
Transferred from the Library 1991
adults
fine arts and music
instrument, mandolin
leisure and pastimes
music
music and entertainment
objects
people
woman
paper print lithograph
Woman with Mandolin
image: 245 × 170 mm
Transferred from the Library 1991
<p><b>Georges Braque  1882-1963</b>
<br/>
<br/><b>Woman with Mandolin </b><span>1945</span>
<br/><b>La mandoline</b>
<br/>
<br/><span>P08228</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>Lithograph 245 x 170 (9 5/8 x 6¾) on cream Vélin d’Arches paper 365 x 282 (14 3/8 x 11); printed by Mourlot Frères, Paris, and published by Fernard Mourlot, Paris, as frontispiece in </span><i>Braque</i><span>, Paris 1945 in an edition of 225 with ten de luxe prints and 4 artist’s proofs</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>Inscribed ‘G Braque’ in pencil b.r. below image, and ‘174/225’ in pencil b.l. below image</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>Transferred from the Tate Gallery Library May 1991</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>Literature:</span>
<br/><span>Fernand Mourlot, with preface by Francis Ponge, </span><i>Braque lithographe</i><span>, Monte Carlo 1963, no.5, p.24, col. repr. (different impression), as ‘La Femme à la mandoline’</span>
<br/><span>Fernand Mourlot, </span><i>Souvenirs et portraits d’artistes</i><span>, Paris 1973, pp.87-93, as ‘Jeune fille à mandoline’</span>
<br/><span>Fernand Mourlot, </span><i>Gravés dans ma mémoire: Cinquante ans de lithographie</i><span>, Paris 1979, pp.118-20</span>
<br/><span>Dora Vallier, </span><i>Braque: Oeuvre gravé. Catalogue raisonné</i><span>, Paris 1982, no.27, p.69, repr. (different impression), as ‘La Femme à la mandoline’</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithograph</span></a>, printed in nine colours (brown, buff, yellow, orange, white, blue, green, purple and black) was produced in an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of 225, with, in addition, ten separate <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> numbered I to X, and four proofs on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> of different dimensions. It was made as a frontispiece, entitled ‘La mandoline’, for the unbound, luxury volume, </span><i>Braque</i><span>, published by Mourlot Frères, Paris, in February 1945, which featured high quality colour reproductions of Braque’s recent works. Braque also designed the cover of this book, which included a series of aphoristic statements on art and life taken from the artist’s notebooks and entitled ‘Réflexions’, as well as an essay by the writer Jean Paulhan, ‘Braque le patron’. This publication is often known, mistakenly, by the title of Paulhan’s essay; it should not be confused, however, with the volume </span><i>Braque le patron</i><span>, published in 1946, in the series ‘Les Grands Peintres par leurs amis’, by Editions des Trois Collines. The latter reprints Paulhan’s essay, but lacks the collection of Braque’s statements and has a different selection of illustrations, reproduced in duotone.</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>The subject of the lithograph, a woman holding a mandolin, was a favourite of Braque’s. Musical instruments had been a leitmotif of Braque’s work from as early as 1908, and women with mandolins first figured in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> of 1910. As Sophie Bowness writes in her essay ‘Braque and Music’,</span><a href="#fn1" name="fnB1">[1]</a><span>
Braque was a proficient musician, and owned a number of musical instruments, some of them quite rare. In a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> of his studio in 1911, for example, he is shown playing a concertina, with a guitar, violin, bandurria and African harp on the table and wall behind him.</span><a href="#fn2" name="fnB2">[2]</a><span>
Braque also owned a mandolin, an instrument associated with Italian folk music, made popular towards the end of the nineteenth century. Sophie Bowness notes:</span></p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><span>The mandolin was flourishing in France when Picasso and Braque introduced their figures cradling or playing mandolins and other instruments in 1909 and 1910 respectively. It had both a place in classical music and a large popular following. On one level, the woman with a mandolin was a popular subject, and one with which Braque and Picasso were familiar; from Céret in 1911, Picasso sent Kahnweiler a postcard of just such a sentimental image. However, there were also important counterparts in the painting of Corot, a life-long and sustaining influence on Braque.</span><a href="#fn3" name="fnB3">[3]</a></blockquote>
<p>
<br/><span>The work of Corot, which had been somewhat neglected hitherto, was celebrated in an exhibition of twenty-four of his figure paintings at the Salon d’Automne in 1909. From 1910 both Braque and Picasso began to explore the subject of women holding musical instruments, so closely associated with the work of the nineteenth-century master; and Juan Gris expressed his admiration in </span><i>Woman with a Mandolin, after Corot</i><span> 1916 (Kunstmuseum, Basle). In the post-war period, Corot’s reputation rose even higher, and his work was admired by both <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism" title="Glossary definition for 'Cubism'"><span>Cubist</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/purism" title="Glossary definition for 'Purism'"><span>Purist</span></a> artists; the Purist periodical </span><i>L’Esprit nouveau</i><span> included articles on Corot in May and June 1921. In 1922-3 Braque showed his love of Corot’s work in a small oil entitled </span><i>Woman with a Mandolin, Free Study after Corot</i><span>, 1922-3 (Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris).</span><a href="#fn4" name="fnB4">[4]</a><span>
On the back of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> Braque noted that the painting was a ‘free study after Corot’, and wrote his initials, in red capitals, above Corot’s name. Elizabeth Cowling writes that this work, bequeathed by Braque to the French national collection, had a ‘special place in his affections because it states so unequivocally his sense of profound affinity with Corot, and hence with the French tradition’.</span><a href="#fn5" name="fnB5">[5]</a><span>
She continues: ‘Corot’s style and the lyrical, tranquil, “musical” quality of his work mattered as much to Braque as his subject matter: the restrained <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tonal</span></a> colour, the dense, impasted surfaces, and the beautifully poised and meditated <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>compositions</span></a> all find an equivalent in Braque’s later work’.</span></p>
<p>
<br/><span>Braque’s sense of an affinity with Corot remained strong throughout the interwar years. In 1930 he hung an exhibition of Corot paintings at the gallery of his dealer Paul Rosenberg;</span><a href="#fn6" name="fnB6">[6]</a><span>
and, following a major Corot retrospective at the Orangerie in Paris in 1936, Braque executed a number of important works with women seated at an easel in a studio or playing musical instruments, themes associated with Corot’s works of the late 1860s and 1870s.</span></p>
<p>
<br/><span>The subject of </span><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> may have been inspired by particular Corot paintings that Braque especially admired. A photograph of Braque’s Paris studio, taken in 1957 by the photographer Robert Doisneau, shows that Braque had pinned to a door two large photographic reproductions of Corot paintings.</span><a href="#fn7" name="fnB7">[7]</a><span>
These were of </span><i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>Portrait</span></a> of Christine Nilsson</i><span> 1874 (Museu de Arte de São Paulo), representing a woman holding a mandolin, and the upper portion of </span><i>Agostina</i><span>
1866 (National Gallery of Art, Washington), a portrait of a standing figure. It is not known when Braque acquired these large photographs, but he would surely have known the images from books, if nowhere else, at the time he executed the lithograph; and it is perhaps not coincidental that the subject of </span><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> recalls Corot’s </span><i>Portrait of Christine Nilsson</i><span>, while the pose of the figure is close to that of </span><i>Agostina</i><span>. It is even possible that the distinctive lozenge-shapes in the background of </span><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> are distant echoes of the cube-like houses in the background in </span><i>Agostina</i><span>, or of the rectilinear canvases surrounding the mandolinists in Corot’s ‘studio’ paintings of the late 1860s. More generally, the curious indistinctness of the mandolin, and the unexplained marks to the right of it, suggestive of flowing liquid, creates the suspicion that the musical instrument in </span><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> is also part jug, and is meant to be read as a memory-image of Corot paintings depicting women holding round-necked pitchers, such as, for example, </span><i>Gypsy Girl at the Fountain</i><span>
</span><i>c</i><span>.1865-70 (Philadelphia Museum of Art).</span><a href="#fn8" name="fnB8">[8]</a></p>
<p>
<br/><span>The image of </span><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> is nearly identical to that of a small oil on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a> executed by Braque, entitled </span><i>Woman with Guitar</i><span>
1943,</span><a href="#fn9" name="fnB9">[9]</a><span>
and the lithograph may be assumed perhaps to be a copy of the painting. The reference to ‘guitar’ in the painting’s title seems incorrect as the instrument appears too small. The lozenge shapes surrounding the figure are characteristic of a small group of paintings executed in 1943. Before this Braque typically used rectangles, either windows or picture frames, to structure the backgrounds of his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/still-life" title="Glossary definition for 'Still life'"><span>still lifes</span></a>; but, for a brief period in 1943, he explored the decorative possibilities of these lozenge shapes, which were painted in two contrasting colours, often with thick <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>impasto</span></a> – a painterly effect that could not be conveyed in the lithograph.</span></p>
<p>
<br/><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> was the last of Braque’s works to feature the subject of a woman holding a mandolin, and it is possible that he felt he had exhausted this theme. In selecting this Corot-inspired subject for the frontispiece of the 1945 monograph, he may have wished, however, to signal once more his abiding sense of identification with Corot and the French tradition, even though he was not to explore this subject further.</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>The fullest account of the genesis of the volume </span><i>Braque</i><span>
is found in </span><i>Souvenirs et portraits d’artistes</i><span> (1973) by the master printer Fernand Mourlot, who, in this instance, acted also as publisher. Mourlot had first met Braque in the late 1930s when commissioned by the art magazine </span><i>Verve</i><span>
to make a lithographic reproduction of a Braque painting, and, sharing the latter’s passion for boxing as well as art, he quickly became a friend of the artist. It was Mourlot who conceived the idea of a monograph on Braque, with high quality colour reproductions of recent works. Though it is not entirely clear from Mourlot’s text, it is likely that he first envisaged this publication as early as 1940, but found it difficult to make progress with it for lack of money and supplies. Certainly, Jean Paulhan had begun writing his essay by 1942: an early version of the text, later entitled ‘Braque le patron’, appeared in </span><i>Comoedia</i><span>, Paris, 31 October 1942.</span><a href="#fn10" name="fnB10">[10]</a><span>
It seems, however, that Braque was not actively involved in making the lithograph and supervising the quality of the reproductions until around 1943. Mourlot writes:</span></p>
<div class="footer"></div>
<blockquote><span>This was only the fourth time that the artist tackled lithography, his last attempt being ten years earlier with the ‘peintre-graveur’ Berdon.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>
<blockquote><span>Braque let himself be taken up by this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>medium</span></a>, discovering its potential, and this encouraged him to continue with it.  This was the beginning of an important and remarkable graphic oeuvre.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>
<blockquote><span>Around 1943, he would come to our studio on Rue de Chabrol.  There was very little traffic then.  Our friend would mount his bicycle at Rue du Douanier [where Braque had his home and studio], and cross Paris from south to north.  ...He would work, correct the proofs of his book, and then go off again on his healthy promenade.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>
<blockquote><span>The making of this book took more than three years.  Half the time the electricity was cut off, and we lacked many of the products necessary for lithography.  Nevertheless, the result was excellent, and Braque confided to me, ‘I was unable to paint for a week after seeing your images’.</span><a href="#fn11" name="fnB11">[11]</a></blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>
<p><span>Similar details of the making of the volume can be found in Fernand Mourlot’s </span><i>The Original Posters</i><span> (Paris, Monte Carlo and London 1959, p.13) as well as in his </span><i>Braque lithographe</i><span> and </span><i>Gravés dans ma mémoire</i><span>.</span><a href="#fn12" name="fnB12">[12]</a><span>
In the latter Mourlot mentioned that Braque drew </span><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> on stone rather than on transfer paper.</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>In the text quoted above, Mourlot said that </span><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> was the fourth lithograph ever produced by Braque. However, he himself had listed it as the fifth in his earlier catalogue of Braque lithographs,</span><a href="#fn13" name="fnB13">[13]</a><span>
after </span><i>Phaeton</i><span>, which was printed by Mourlot himself but published by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, also in 1945.  This apparent discrepancy is explained if, as seems likely, Braque began work on </span><i>Woman with Mandolin</i><span> before working on </span><i>Phaeton</i><span>, and if the publication of the book </span><i>Braque</i><span>
(on 13 February 1945) occurred after the editioning of the Kahnweiler print.</span></p>
<p>
<br/><span>Jennifer Mundy</span>
<br/><span>November 1993</span></p>
<hr/><div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB1" name="fn1">[1]</a></span>
<span>Sophie Bowness, ‘Braque and Music’, in </span><i>Braque: Still Lifes and Interiors</i><span>, exh. cat., South Bank tour, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Sept.-Oct. 1990, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Oct.-Dec. 1990, pp.56-7.</span>
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB2" name="fn2">[2]</a></span>
<span>Reproduced ibid., p.60.</span></div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB3" name="fn3">[3]</a></span>
<span>I</span><span>bid</span><span>., p.63.</span></div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB4" name="fn4">[4]</a></span>
<span>Reproduced in </span><i>On Classic Ground: Picasso, Léger, de Chirico and the New Classicism 1910-1930</i><span>, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, June-Sept 1990, p.47, in colour.</span>
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB5" name="fn5">[5]</a></span>
<span>Ibid., p.47.</span></div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB6" name="fn6">[6]</a></span>
<span>See Bowness, pp.63-4.</span></div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB7" name="fn7">[7]</a></span>
<span>Reproduced in Bernard Zurcher, </span><i>Georges Braque: Life and Work</i><span>, trans. Simon Nye, New York 1988, p.214.</span>
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB8" name="fn8">[8]</a></span>
<span>Reproduced in Jean Leymarie, </span><i>Corot</i><span>, trans. Stuart Gilbert, London 1979, p.130.</span></div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB9" name="fn9">[9]</a></span>
<span>Reproduced in Maeght Editeur, </span><i>Catalogue de l’oeuvre de Georges Braque: Peintures 1942-1947</i><span>, Paris 1960, no.35.</span></div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB10" name="fn10">[10]</a></span>
<span>See </span><i>Jean Paulhan à travers ses peintres</i><span>, exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris, Feb.–April 1974, pp.152-4; for letters, unfortunately undated, between Paulhan and Braque relating to this essay, see ibid., pp.73-6.</span></div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB11" name="fn11">[11]</a></span>
<span>Fernand Mourlot, </span><i>Souvenirs et portraits d’artistes</i><span>, Paris 1973, pp.92-3.</span>
<br/><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB12" name="fn12">[12]</a></span>
Fernand Mourlot, <i>The Original Posters</i>, Paris, Monte Carlo and London 1959, p.13; Mourlot, <i>Braque lithographe</i>, Monte Carlo 1963 and Mourlot, <i>Gravés dans ma mémoire: Cinquante ans de lithographie</i>, Paris 1979.</div>
<div class="endnote_text"><span class="endnote_reference"><a href="#fnB13" name="fn13">[13]</a></span>
<span>Mourlot 1963</span></div>

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2004-09-21T00:00:00
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