“This still life by Georges Braque offers a unique blend of Cubist fragmentation and tactile surface, using sand mixed with oil paint to create a richly textured and visually engaging experience.”
In this still life, a stringed instrument and a bounty of fruit emerge from a muted, textured background. The composition plays with depth and flatness, a hallmark of Braque's approach. Notice how the forms are fractured and reassembled, yet still recognizable, inviting the viewer to piece together the scene. The artist incorporated sand into the oil paint, giving the surface a gritty, tactile quality that enhances the visual weight of the objects. This technique creates a subtle, almost sculptural relief, making the canvas feel less like a window and more like an object itself. The subdued palette of greens, browns, and ochres unifies the disparate elements, drawing attention to the interplay of shapes and the physical presence of the painting.
- Artist
- Georges Braque
- Date
- 1938
- Medium
- Oil and sand on canvas
- Location
- Art Institute of Chicago
What to Notice
Five details hide in plain sight. Here’s where to look.

The way the guitar's body is both curved and angular.
The actual grains of sand visible in the paint.
The overlapping, transparent planes that define the fruit.
The subtle shadows that create a sense of volume despite the flattened forms.
1 more detail is waiting.
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Georges Braque
1882–1963 · FranceCo-invented Cubism with Picasso, creating works so similar experts couldn't tell them apart for years.
Further Works by Braque
Antwerp
1906 · Art Institute of Chicago
Landscape at L'Estaque
1906 · Art Institute of Chicago
Little Harbor in Normandy
1909 · Art Institute of Chicago
Still Life with Glass, Dice, Newspaper and Playing Card
1913 · Art Institute of Chicago
Woman at an Easel (Green Screen)
1936 · Art Institute of Chicago
Wheatfield
1951 · Art Institute of Chicago
More from Cubism
More works to explore
Beyond Braque and Cubism: works from the same years, and from the other movements Still Life with Fruits and Stringed Instrument belongs to.
Same movement · Fauvism
Carmelina
Henri Matisse · 1903 · Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Greyed Rainbow
Jackson Pollock · 1953 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Sun Spot
Yayoi Kusama · 1953 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Deux personnages
Pierre Alechinsky · 1950
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Divided and Divided
Ivan Puni · 1941 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Nighthawks
Okada Saburosuke · 1942 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
The Indestructibles
Philip Evergood · 1946 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Straße mit Passanten bei Nachtbeleuchtung
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner · 1927 · Museum Frieder Burda
Same era · 1920s–1950s
La durée poignardée (Time Transfixed)
René Magritte · 1938 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
White Crucifixion
Marc Chagall · 1938 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Girl in Yellow and Blue with Guitar
Henri Matisse · 1939 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Inventions of the Monsters
Salvador Dalí · 1937 · Art Institute of Chicago
Same era · 1920s–1950s
Women Harvesting
Paul Klee · 1937 · Art Institute of Chicago


