His "rose period,' 1905-1906, is characterized by the use of a lighter palette and "greater lyricism, with the subject matter often drawn from circus life" (Picasso pp). Moreover, his studio in Paris drew the major figures of this avant-garde era, such as Matisse, Braque, Apollinaire, and Gertrude Stein (Picasso pp). Picasso's 1907 "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," was a radical departure from traditional art and is now considered the "most significant work in the development toward cubism and modern abstraction" (Picasso pp). It is obvious that Picasso was greatly influence by Cezanne and by African sculpture as noted in "its fragmented forms and unprecedented distortions" (Picasso pp). This painting is considered to be the first phase of cubism, analytic cubism, 1909-1912, which is a "severe, intellectual style was conceived and developed by Picasso, Braque, and Gris" (Picasso pp). His "Female Nude," 1910-1911, is a representative painting of this style, and his "Woman's Head," 1909, is a representative sculpture (Picasso pp).

During the synthetic phase of cubism, after 1912, Picasso's forms became "larger and more representational, and flat, bright decorative patterns replaced the earlier, more austere compositions," and his 1921 "The Three Musicians" is a classic representation of this style (Picasso pp). Picasso's work during the cubist period firmly established that a work of art could exist as an important object "beyond any attempt to represent reality" (Picasso pp).

The concerns of Braque and Picasso were so mutual and their association so intense that it is often difficult for experts to distinguish Braque's painting of 1910 through 1912 from those of Picasso (Braque pp). Braque's 1910 "Violin and Pitcher" is one of the best examples of his analytic cubism period, when all his work was characterized by muted greens, grays and browns, with fragmented objects seen from several viewpoints (Braque pp). "By rendering the areas between the objects in a tactile, material fashion, Braque succeeds in fusing objects and space into a spatial continuum composed of small, fluid, interpenetrating planes" (Braque pp). Braque's...

In "Houses at L'Estaque," Braque uses severe browns, greens and grays and again a system of verticals and horizontals are broken "only by the forty-five degree diagonals of rooftops and trees," as all details and tree foliage are eliminated and/or reduced (Braque pp). Moreover, there is no central vanishing point and the houses in the background are darker and stronger than the house in the foreground (Braque pp).
In Picasso's "Three Women," the human body appears "as a monolithic mass with crystalline contours" and shading intensifies the sense of three dimensional form (Florman pp). Of "Les demoiselles d'Avignon," Picasso said, "I painted a profile nose into a frontal view of a face. I just had to depict in sideways so that I could give it a name, so that I could call it 'nose'" (Pablo pp). His "Bread and Fruit Dish on a Table," 1909, is considered by critics to mark the beginning of his analytical cubism, as he abandons central perspective and "splits up forms in facet-like stereo-metric shapes" (Pablo pp).

This new visual expression called cubism, was adopted and developed by numerous painters, such as Jean Metzinger and Fernand Leger, and has had a profound influence on twentieth century art and architecture (Cubism pp). Moreover, the experiments in cubism by Picasso and Braque is responsible for new techniques of art, such as collage and papier colle (Picasso pp).

Works Cited

Pablo Picasso; pp. http://www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picassobio.html#Cubism

Florman, Lisa. "Picasso: Style and Meaning." The Art Bulletin; 9/1/2004; pp.

Braque, Georges. WebMuseum: Pairs; pp. http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/braque/braque2.html

Picasso, Pablo. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition; 2/24/2005; pp.

Georges Braque (1882-1963); pp. http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Braque.html

Cubism; pp. http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/study/cubism.html