Glass and Tobacco (Verre et paquet de tabac)

Glass and Tobacco (Verre et paquet de tabac) is a seminal work created by Georges Braque in 1913, positioning it at the peak of his revolutionary contributions to Cubism. This French masterwork exemplifies the transition from the dense, monochromatic phase of Analytical Cubism into the material experimentation of Synthetic Cubism. The piece, classified as a drawing, utilizes a complex mixed-media approach incorporating pencil, charcoal, and the groundbreaking technique of papier collé, or cut-and-pasted printed paper, affixed directly onto the substrate.

Dating to a crucial year, the composition utilizes fragmented visual information to suggest the still-life subject matter: a glass and a package of tobacco resting on a surface. Braque employs fragments of drawn lines and charcoal shading to construct the geometric structures, while the pasted paper introduces external reality and textual information that disrupts the illusionistic space. The presence of actual printed material emphasizes the flatness of the picture plane, forcing the viewer to simultaneously perceive the abstract arrangement and recognize the material source of the pattern or text used by the artist.

The integration of materials such as newspaper fragments and commercially printed paper marks a defining moment in early modern art, challenging traditional notions of fine art media and representation. Braque’s method of synthesizing form rather than analyzing it became a key methodology for subsequent modernist movements. This drawing demonstrates the artist's commitment to exploring the formal implications of materiality and fragmentation within the 1913 Cubist vocabulary. Today, high-quality images and scholarly information about this piece are frequently used for art reference and educational prints, solidifying its status as a vital document of the period. The work resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.