Georges Braque The Port of La Ciotat

We look across a sandy colored beach or walkway that stretches away from us to our right and then turns ninety degrees to our left in the distance, to enclose a teal-green body of water filled with rows of small rowboats in this nearly square, stylized landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with vibrant colors, in jewel-toned topaz and royal blue, emerald and mint green, pale orchid purple, golden yellow, cream white, and crimson red. The boats grouped along the beach close to us are lined up in a row along the beach to our right, punctuated by a few vertical masts. The beach across from us in the distance is lined with a cotton candy-pink, pale lavender-purple, sage-green, and pumpkin-orange warehouses in front of a line of cobalt-blue mountains along the horizon, which comes nearly to the top edge of the canvas. The sky is pastel purple, green, yellow, and peach above. The artist signed the work in dark paint in the lower right corner: “Braque.”