For a Parisian art gallery “Salon d’Automne” show in September 1908, Georges Braque was prepared to present an abstract painting that to some appeared to have cubes embedded in the painting. Members of the print press had seen the painting and started a buzz long before the show. Braque was being criticized about the painting before it was released to the public. He removed the painting from the show lineup, but the comment about “cubes” in the paintings had stuck in people’s minds. A writer in 1909 referred to this style as Cubism as he discovered that Georges Braque’s close friend Pablo Picasso and others also had painted these types of abstract paintings with embedded cubes.
Braque was one of two painters with creations titled “Violin and Glass. His was the first after being created between 1910 and 1911. Braque would create many other abstract pieces with glass and musical instruments as the themes of the painting, including “Violin and Palette”, “Woman with a Mandolin,” “Bowl of Fruit Bottle and Glass,” and “Pipe Glass Dice and Newspaper."
Born Jose Victoriano Gonzalez Perez, Juan Gris lived next door to Pablo Picasso. Juan Gris produced his “Violin and Glass” version in February of 1918 according to his signature in the lower left corner of the painting. Juan Gris was friends with Pablo Picasso and saw Georges Braque as a mentor.
“Violin & Glass” painted by Juan Gris appears to be outlined in cubes. The violin in the center appears to be split in two halves that never quite come together. Gris uses splashes of pastel colors such as orange, purple, white, yellows and black. Georges Braque’s “Violin and Glass” painting is centered in a golden oval. Inside the oval it appears that several blocks of lumber and glass, depicted in brown and white, are piled on top of one another. The pencil-like sketch of the violin appears to be an afterthought and is not completely finished.