Aug. 31, 1963 - Georges Braque (pictured in 1950), one of modern France’s outstanding painters and decorators, died today in his studio home on the Left Bank. He was 81 years old. The cause of the artist’s death was given as a cerebral congestion — a stoppage of the flow of blood in the brain. Braque was in the forefront of two movements, Fauvism and Cubism, which at the beginning of the century helped maintain the pre-eminence of French art. Braque’s work between 1908 and 1912 is closely associated with that of his colleague Pablo Picasso. Their respective Cubist works were virtually indistinguishable from one another for many years, yet the quiet nature of Braque was partially eclipsed by the fame and notoriety of Picasso. The two artists’ productive collaboration continued until the beginning of World War I in 1914, when Braque enlisted with the French Army. In May 1915, Braque received a severe head injury in a battle at Carency and suffered temporary blindness. He was trepanned and required a long period of recuperation. He resumed painting in late 1916. The Louvre recognized Braque’s contribution by making him the first living artist whose works were exhibited there. His paintings, sculptures and other works are included today in the collections of the world’s great galleries, and reproductions of his paintings hang on as many walls as did those of Van Gogh’s a generation earlier.
