We find here a cubist form of a shoulder-length female, which we can just about make out within the fractal world which was originally inspired by the earlier work of Paul Cezanne. The cross, which hangs around the model's neck, helps us to lay out the composition in our mind. From that we can see shoulders, and an approximate neck area. As we move upwards, there is a nose, ears, and perhaps some eyes. Darker tones then perhaps deliver curly hair, and at that point we feel comfortable in what we are looking at. The cubist movement would deliver the same content as we might see, but arrange its components differently and this would often confuse our brains which are used to seeing things in only one particular way. Over the period of their work, the distance that they travelled from reality would fluctuate, making some cubist paintings easier to decipher than others.
Many abstract artists of different styles and movements would do the same, with Miro being a good example, where he became more and more abstract as time went on. Mondrian was the same, with the latter also having been inspired by Cubism himself. Braque would use a similar colour scheme in many of his cubist pieces, fairly drab tones of brown and grey which would not suit all tastes. This was in stark contrast to his time as a fauvist, which heralded a number of bright artworks, such as Landscape at La Ciotat and L'Estaque. Many suggestions have been put forward to explain this difference, including the artist's own troubles as well as just a desire to address still life work differently to how he had captured local landscape scenes. He was also part of a collective now, and so would have taken influence from Picasso and Gris as well.
Perhaps the point that these artists were trying to make as their movement progressed and developed is that the model and the backgroound behind her were merging together into one, which would create a new reality. What humans had accepted before was not applicable to their own reality, within these paintings. The same can be said for the still life pieces, where table, background and items on the table would merge together into a new normal and over time this idea became more pronounced and the paintings more abstract. You will find many more examples of this throughout the movement, not just in Braque's own ouevre. Despite the relatively dark colour schemes, there is still a massive following for this style of art and thousands continue to order prints of their work.