Compare and Contrast

Jansen Al

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso is oil on canvas made in

1907; it is 8' x 7' 8". It depicts five naked women with figures with flat

faces, which were inspired by African masks. The compressed space makes

the figures project forward in a jagged shape. The use of this technique is

important in Picassos development of cubism. The Avignon of the works

title is a reference to a street in Barcelona famed for its brothel. Originally

one of the figures was meant to be male, but was changed during final

revisions. It is similar to The Portuguese by Georges Braque because both

paintings were part of the Cubism movement and along with Picasso; Braque

was the co-founder of the movement.

The Portuguese by Georges Braque is oil on canvas, it is 45 9/10 32

1/10 in and was made in 1911. Braque fragmented objects and

reconstructed them into geometric forms. He was also one of the first to use

a technique called papier coll, which is attaching pieces of wallpaper to a

charcoal drawing. Braque adopted a neutral palette of browns and

blacks, intending the viewer to focus on the composition rather than

the color. It contrasts from Picassos Les Demoiselles d'Avignon because

Braque was concerned only with space and composition.