Where the Name "Cubism" Came From

Landscape with Two Figures has the unmistakable feel of the Cubism we just talked about. So why was it called "Cubism" in the first place? To explain, here is a similar painting that is not by Picasso: Houses at L'Estaque by Georges Braque, who developed Cubism alongside Picasso.

Look at it and the houses seem to be made of cubes. The painting was submitted to the 1908 Salon d'Automne, where Henri Matisse, on the jury, apparently thought the same thing and called them "peculiar cubes." The critic Louis Vauxcelles later used the phrase "bizarre cubic forms" several times when writing about Braque's work. And that is how the name Cubism came about.

Cube-like as they are, the forms feel more dynamic than a realistic landscape would. So the style called Cubism was born. Keep Braque's Houses at L'Estaque in mind and view it together with Landscape with Two Figures.