He had moved away from his early Fauvist style of painting which incorporated the use of bright, expressive colour and was beginning to use more geometric shapes like Cezanne.
Braque was inspired to create this large female nude after seeing Picasso's painting of "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" at Picasso's studio.
Braque's Large Nude was quite a departure from the usual artistic styles and depiction of women. Without using clear lines, Braque had formed his female nude from geometric shapes and used colour to create the illusion of volume, lines, mass and weight.
His nude appears reclined and twisted to the side, lying upon a sheet or towel. He used a limited palette of colours, mainly browns and greys to create an image that was a complete contrast to his early pictures of brightly painted landscapes.
This Large Nude painting marked another step toward his journey into Cubism with Picasso.
Naturally the image appeared quite shocking to many viewers at the time. One feminist writer described the nude's breasts as "water pitchers" and described the stomach as a "balloon".
Some referred to it as "monstrous". One critic who viewed the painting at the Exhibition at Galerie Kahnweiler wrote that "cries of horror could be heard" yet the same critic, Charles Maurice, also showed some understanding of the new technique, suggesting that those who viewed it as ugly or monstrous were making a "rash judgement".
The influential French art critic, Louis Vauxcelles, described Braque as "daring". Vauxcelles's description of how Braque reduced everything to "geometric schemas" and to "cubes" eventually coined the new term "Cubism" and both Braque and Picasso became its pioneers.
Braque's Large Nude was bold and daring. Together with Picasso, he took the art world into a new direction and in time his Large Nude would be recognized for the simplistic beauty it is.
