A guéridon is a small side table that was popular in France during the court of Louis XIV. Displaying both Cubist and Neoclassical elements, this painting, with its somber tones and tactile surface, is typical of Braque's work when he returned to painting after being seriously injured during World War I.
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[Léonce Rosenberg, Paris]; comte Etienne de Beaumont, Paris; comte Jean de Beaumont, Garches; Prince A. Poniatowski, Paris; [Galerie des Arts Anciens et Modernes, Schaan, Liechtenstein, until 1960; sold half share on July 25, 1960 to Knoedler]; [Knoedler & Co., New York, 1960–61; stock no. A 7698; sold on January 6, 1961 to Smith]; Louise Reinhardt Smith, New York (1961–79; partial gift to MMA, 1979–d. 1995; her bequest to MMA)
Paris. Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées. "Salon d'automne," November 1–December 17, 1922, no. 267 (as "Le Guéridon").
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "Masterpieces: A Memorial Exhibition for Adele R. Levy," April 6–May 7, 1961, no. 54 (as "Nature Morte: Le Guéridon," 1929, lent by Mrs. Louise Smith).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 12–September 2, 1963, checklist no. 2 (as "Still Life–Le Gueridon," lent by Mrs. Bertram Smith).
New York. Perls Galleries. "Georges Braque, 1882–1963: An American Tribute. The Twenties," April 7–May 2, 1964, no. 7 (as "The Gueridon," c. 1921, lent by Mrs. Bertram Smith, New York).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Summer Loan Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from Private Collections," July 8–September 6, 1966, no. 15 (as "Still Life—Le Gueridon," lent by Mrs. Bertram Smith).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "New York Collects," July 3–September 2, 1968, no. 22 (as "Still Life—Le Guéridon," lent by Mrs. Bertram Smith).
Paris. Orangerie des Tuileries. "Georges Braque," October 16, 1973–January 14, 1974, no. 69 (as "Le Guéridon," 1921–22, lent by Mrs. Bertram Smith).
Saint-Paul. Fondation Maeght. "Georges Braque," July 5–September 30, 1980, no. 82 (as "Le guéridon").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth Century Acquisitions," September 15–November 30, 1983, no catalogue.
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Georges Braque," June 10–September 11, 1988, no. 36 (as "The Table [Le Guéridon]").
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Masterworks from The Louise Reinhardt Smith Collection," May 4–August 22, 1995, unnumbered cat. (p. 21; as "The Table [Le Guéridon]").
New York. Knoedler & Company. "The Rise of the Art World in America: Knoedler at 150," December 5, 1996–January 12, 1997, unnumbered cat. (p. 21; as "Le Guéridon," 1921–22).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Florene M. Schoenborn Bequest: 12 Artists of the School of Paris," February 11–May 4, 1997, extended to August 31, 1997, not in brochure [among 14 non-Schoenborn bequest works included in the exhibition].
Marugame Genichiro Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art. "Georges Braque Retrospective," June 6–July 19, 1998, no. 29 (as "Le Guéridon," 1921–22).
Kagoshima City Museum of Art. "Georges Braque Retrospective," July 24–August 30, 1998, no. 29.
Tokyo. Bunkamura Museum of Art. "Georges Braque Retrospective," September 12–October 25, 1998, no. 29.
Mie Prefectural Art Museum. "Georges Braque Retrospective," November 3–December 13, 1998, no. 29.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895–1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 95; as "Guitar and Still Life on a Guéridon").
John Canaday. "What Makes a Masterpiece." New York Times Magazine (April 2, 1961), p. 23, ill., calls it "Le Gueridon".
John Richardson. G. Braque. Greenwich, Conn., 1961, p. 20, colorpl. 34 [Italian ed., Milan, 1960], calls it "Le Guéridon" and dates it about 1928; [erroneously?] locates it as still in a private collection, Garches.
John Richardson. "Braque: Pre-cube to post-Zen." Art News 63 (April 1964), p. 30, ill., comments that the success of this picture at the 1922 Salon d'Automne is indicated by its purchase by the comte Etienne de Beaumont.
Stanislas Fumet. Georges Braque. Paris, 1965, p. 216, ill. p. 79 (color), as "Le guéridon," 1921.
Edwin Mullins. Braque. London, 1968, pp. 100, 211, fig. 79 (color), calls it "The Guéridon" and dates it about 1928; erroneously locates it still in a private collection, Garches.
Raymond Cogniat. Braque. New York, 1970, ill. p. 30 (color), as "The Gueridon," 1921.
Massimo Carrà. L'Opera completa di Braque dalla scomposizione cubista al recupero dell'oggetto 1908–1929. Milan, 1971, pp. 94–96, no. 189, ill., dates it 1921.
Douglas Cooper. Braque: The Great Years. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1972, pp. 57–58, fig. 35, as "The Guéridon"; dates it 1921–22 and calls it the earliest of Braque's second sequence of about fifteen Guéridon pictures.
Nicole S. Mangin. Catalogue de l'œuvre de Georges Braque. Vol. [2], Peintures 1916–1923. [Paris], 1973, p. 97, ill., calls it "Le Guéridon" and dates it 1922.
William S. Lieberman in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1979–1980. New York, 1980, pp. 61–62, ill. (color), calls it "Le Guéridon" and dates it 1921–22.
Kathleen Howard, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 1983, p. 412, no. 5, ill. (color).
Grace Glueck. "The Met Makes Room for the 20th Century." New York Times (September 18, 1983), p. H30.
William S. Lieberman. 20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 1, Painting: 1905–1945. New York, 1986, pp. 7, 34–35, 63, ill. (color, overall and detail), calls it "The Guéridon" and dates it 1921–22.
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, p. 119, colorpl. 96, as "Le Guéridon," 1921–22.
Theodore F. Wolff. "Metropolitan Museum of Art: Big Lift from a New Wing." Christian Science Monitor (February 2, 1987), p. 25, calls it "The Guéridon".
Magdalena M. Moeller in Jean Leymarie. Georges Braque. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Munich, 1988, p. 26.
Jean Leymarie. Georges Braque. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Munich, 1988, unpaginated, no. 36, ill. (color), dates it 1921–22.
Karen Wilkin. Georges Braque. New York, 1991, p. 65, fig. 44 (color), calls it "The Table" and dates it 1921–22.
Barbara Burn, ed. Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 297, ill. (color), calls it "The Guéridon" and dates it 1921–22.
Barbara Burn, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd rev. ed. (1st ed., 1983). New York, 1994, p. 438, no. 13, ill. (color), calls it "Le Guéridon"
.
Kadee Robbins inMasterworks from the Louise Reinhardt Smith Collection. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1995, pp. 20–21, 84, ill. (color), dates it 1921–22.
Jean Leymarie. Braque: Les ateliers. Aix-en-Provence, 1995, pp. 45–46, colorpl. 15, calls it "Le Guéridon" and dates it 1921–22.
Robert Hughes. The Shock of the New: The Hundred–Year History of Modern Art–Its Rise, Its Dazzling Achievement, Its Fall. 4th ed. [1st ed., 1980]. New York, 1996, p. 146, colorpl. 93, calls it "Le Guéridon" and dates it 1921–22
.
Lowery Stokes Sims and Sabine Rewald inStill Life: The Object in American Art, 1915-1995. Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Marsh Art Gallery, Richmond, Va. New York, 1996, p. 15.
Grace Glueck. "Selling the First Nuggets of a Nation's Collection." New York Times (December 13, 1996), p. C32.
Georges Braque (French, Argenteuil 1882–1963 Paris)
1912, published 1950
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