Through unusual combinations of color, line, and texture, Georges Braque pushed the boundaries of representing objects from various perspectives. While he is best known for his Cubist collaborations with Pablo Picasso, Braque continued to create art long after his creative relationship with Picasso ended. Unlike his former partner, however, Braque often preferred the quiet of his studio to burning bright in the world of art. The subject of the still life on a mantelpiece repeatedly piqued his interest, and from 1919 to 1926, Braque made at least six studies of this theme. He was drawn to its spatial tension and the way in which it naturally compresses objects on a small surface. Still Life on a Mantelpiece is the second horizontally oriented work in the series. Here, there exists a harmonious balance between the mantel and the objects, and the composition and the viewer. Braque further played with space by grouping all of the components asymmetrically on the far right of the ledge; however, they appear disproportionately large in scale, as if they are about to fall.