Georges Braque is one of the best-known and least-understood artists of our century. Though he has long been acknowledged as an essential figure in the evolution of contemporary art, it has been less clear whether he should be defined as a radical innovator or elegant stylist, as a serene classicist or temperamental individualist, as Picasso's sidekick or the grand old man of French painting. From his friends' affectionate recollections, Braque emerges...