Cubism was developed between 1908 and 1913 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The style received its name after fellow artist Matisse described Braque's paintings to critic Louis Vauxcelles as being painted "avec des petits cubes" (with little cubes). Adopting Cezanne's theory on using the simple forms of cylinder, sphere and cone to represent nature in art, the Cubists expanded on this idea by depicting objects as if seen from numerous markedly different angles at once.

It was through this innovative technique that they introduced a new, fourth dimension into the realm of painting: time.

In late 1909 Picasso and Braque began working very closely together developing a new treatment of form and space. Cezanne's theories were pushed to the limits of three-dimensional objects translated onto the two-dimensional canvas. Subjects (either inanimate or animate) were reduced to thin planes drained of color, shuffled and reassembled into a new abstract structure transforming art into science. It was through this analytical study of form and frequent analogies to geometry that the first branch of Cubism was named: Analytic Cubism.

Despite the many theories and comparisons made by critics fusing Cubism with science, Cubism was intended by its creators to be a visual experience; an experience that denies a single definition of reality and replaces it with multiple interpretations. Not only did this style reinvent the two-dimensional painting, it also inspired new approaches to sculpture. One of the most successful sculptors in the Analytic Cubist style was Jacques Lipchitz.

It was in 1911 that Braque and Picasso fully succeeded in merging their collective styles through Analytic Cubism to a point where the hand of one painter was nearly indistinguishable from the other. Having exhausted the possibilities of Analytic Cubism, both artists began to transform their style by constructing works from objects and shapes cut from paper or other materials to represent parts of a subject. This new approach, being constructive and synthetic rather than analytic, became known as Synthetic Cubism.

Determined to provide a clearer description of the visual world, in early 1912 Picasso created "Still Life With Chair Caning." Rather than painting the image on the canvas, Picasso pasted a piece of oil cloth onto the canvas thus inventing the collage (taken from the French word coller, meaning "to glue"). Inspired by Picasso's method, Braque invented papier colle (pasted paper) in his work "Fruit Dish and Glass." In this method, the image is composed with fragments of pasted paper.

Instead of relying on paint and brush to create images on paper and canvas, the artists began to use collage and papier colle to build up images that were more symbolic rather than visual fact. It was through the use of found objects that both artists were able to reintroduce color into their works. The paintings of 1913 and 1914 began to take on larger geometric color shapes with more positive colors. It was also during the years of 1910 through 1914 that Cubist painting had begun to grown in many countries influencing both Picasso's and Braque's works. With the commencement of World War I in 1914 the intimate collaboration between Braque and Picasso ended when Braque joined the French army. The core Cubist movement however continued through the 1920's.

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