Rare first edition lithograph, "Les Citrons" (The Lemons), published by Atelier Maeght in June 1952 for the Georges Braque exhibition at the Galerie Maeght.  Signed in stone.  Excellent condition, center fold as issued.  Sheet size: 15 x 22 inches; print size: 13 x 19 inches.
 
Georges Braque (1882-1963), originally trained to be a house painter and decorator like his father. However, he also studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts.  His earliest works were impressionistic, but after seeing the work exhibited by the Fauves in 1905, Braque adopted a Fauvist style. The Fauves, a group that included Henri Matisse and André Derain among others, used more brilliant colors and a more abstract structure.  Braque's style began an evolution first influenced by Paul Cézanne.  Beginning in 1909, Braque began to work closely with Pablo Picasso, who had been developing a similar approach to oil painting. At the time Pablo Picasso was influenced by Gauguin, Cézanne, African tribal masks and Iberian sculpture, while Braque was still interested in developing Cézanne's ideas about perspective. The result of this collaboration was the invention of Cubism, with French art critic Louis Vauxcelles first using the term Cubism, or "bizarre cubiques", after seeing a painting by Braque.  Braque was severely wounded in World War I, but recovered and worked throughout the remainder of his life, producing a large number of distinguished oil paintings, lithographs, and sculptures.