Headpiece (folio 10) from Le Piège de Méduse (The Ruse of Medusa) by Georges Braque is a significant example of the artist's robust engagement with the graphic arts during the early post-Cubist period. Created in 1921, this print is one component from an illustrated book featuring three original woodcuts. The creation of these livres d’artiste (artist books) highlights a key trend among French modernists in the decade following World War I: the collaboration between prominent visual artists and contemporary literary figures to produce finely crafted, limited-edition volumes.
As an original woodcut print, the piece displays the structured simplification and formal economy characteristic of Braque’s style. Unlike his concurrent oil paintings, which often explored complex textures and layered color, the technique of the woodcut demands a focus on bold, angular lines, high contrast, and the interaction between deep blacks and unprinted negative space. This specific print functions as a visual prelude or complement to the accompanying text in the complete illustrated book, serving both a decorative and substantive role. The medium provided Braque with a new challenge in composition, requiring the distillation of objects and figures into elemental, graphic forms that still convey spatial dimension.
The complete volume, Le Piège de Méduse, firmly places Braque within the influential French tradition of fine-press printmaking. Though Georges Braque is internationally renowned as a pioneer of Cubism, his artistic output extended significantly into mediums such as sculpture, lithography, and these carefully designed illustrated books of the 1920s. The prevalence of prints from this period underscores the dedication of the artist to making his visual language accessible across different formats. This piece from 1921 is preserved in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, acknowledging its importance both within Braque’s overall oeuvre and its contribution to the history of illustrated literature.
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