The Viaduct at L'Estaque

Georges Braque

1907

Oil on canvas

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A landscape painting depicts a stone viaduct with multiple arches, surrounded by rolling hills and trees. Buildings with yellow roofs are nestled in the valley below the viaduct. A landscape painting depicts a stone viaduct with multiple arches, surrounded by rolling hills and trees. Buildings with yellow roofs are nestled in the valley below the viaduct. Between 1906 and 1910, Georges Braque made several trips to the south of France and the port at L'Estaque, just west of Marseilles. There, he found the new landscapes to paint using the nonnaturalistic colors of the Fauves. During his 1907 stay, Braque also became influenced by the art of Paul Cézanne, who had painted there earlier. Like Cézanne, Braque reduced the site to simple geometric forms. Moving beyond Cézanne's solid masses, however, Braque made th