There is a tactile nature to this painting due to the additions of sand and pebbles which attempt to bridge the third dimension towards sculpture. To see this piece in person, it is only then that you can really understand the finish left by the artist by combining these different elements of mixed media, though the larger image further down the page may just give a small hint as to what to expect. There is also a very abrupt, aggressive use of lighting here, where one side of the jug is bright white, and the other is very dark grey, with literally no blend between the two. The artist attracts your attention with the blocks of white, though there are also some attractive tones of green too, which also stand out against the main tone of grey.
The artist uses single lines of black paint to separate most forms in this cubist abstraction. The overall balance of the piece is fairly crowded and most elements are of indistinguishable colouring, making it hard to tell one item from the next. Braque's approach to cubism involved foreground and background merging together, creating a new reality that was far removed from what we are used to in our own lives. This makes it intriguing to see art such as this, but also challenging to decipher the various shapes and forms. Those familiar with his work, however, will by now have started to understand his consistent language and therefore find it much easier to 'read' this painting.
Georges Braque produced a huge number of still life artworks during his career and this genre was highly prominent with most cubist artists, who breathed new life into this normally traditional style of art which was made famous by the likes of Cezanne and Chardin. He had turned his back on the fauvist work over around a decade earlier which has also received academic backing, but the artist could not sustain his interest in landscape art over the long period. He is now most famous for his cubist work, as well as his collaborations with Pablo Picasso.
