In the painting Woman with a Mandolin, Georges Braque depicts a woman playing the mandolin, but with a distortion of the woman and the mandolin, using cubist geometric shapes and dark outlines. The woman and the mandolin are treated equally in this image, where the geometric shapes are seen through an optical prism. In the lower third of the painting, the observer can see the body shape of the mandolin, which is as clear as the delicate threads that hold a woman's fingers and hands. Georges Braque said: "Nature stimulates feeling, and I love that feeling in art. I would like to discover absolutely in a woman, not just her body."
A musical instrument that belongs to the type of lute, the mandolin in the painting Woman with a Mandolin is surrounded by waves of colors and shapes, hidden in the vibration of blocking, color, and rhythm of the figure. Figure and background merge in a dense mesh of vertical and horizontal lines, on a continuous spatial surface made up of small interrelated planes. All elements are echoes of shadows, with sound characteristics, light, and reflection. Many geometric parts in all shapes are shown. The diffuse light and these blockages, oriented in this or that direction, are in harmony with each other.
The color of the painting Woman with a Mandolin is restricted to a narrow range of ochres, greys, and browns, through which it still achieves a wide range of artistic effects through the use of divisional techniques and light, with wide brush strokes.